32
Ch.32 I refuse.
You clearly implied there was delicious honey rice cake, only to play with my heart like this.
Gu Seo-ryong smiled at my cold reaction and slid across the floor toward me.
"If you mentioned a nest, you must know what it means, right? What it means when a female monster like me guides a male monster as attractive as you to a nest."
"You want offspring."
"Bingo. So, how about it? Want to make some? Our offspring would undoubtedly be strong."
"I refuse."
I grabbed Gu Seo-ryong, who was clinging to my arm and pushed her away with one hand.
Gu Seo-ryong licked her lips excitedly, her core pounding loudly.
In contrast, sensing my own core remaining perfectly still, her expression twisted slightly.
"Hmm… The more you reject me, the more I want you. But, honestly, I’m a little hurt. No reaction at all?"
"I’m not the same kind of monster as you. Sending out wavelengths won’t make me want to mate."
"That’s irrelevant. If a woman undresses and a man doesn’t react, of course, she’d feel bad."
"If you feel bad, put your clothes back on."
"Oh my, why? Are you embarrassed after seeing me?"
"You’re impossible to talk to."
"Of course I am! With a man like you in front of me… Hmph, well, men never understand women anyway."
Gu Seo-ryong tangled her legs with mine and wrapped her arms around my waist.
Even as I pushed her off one hand at a time, she kept clinging to me, irritating me enough to grab her G3 neck and squeeze as if to snap it.
"Get off. You’re annoying."
"Hehe, CXI, why not just mate and become mine?"
"No. Once the necklace arrives, I’m leaving. Stop bothering me."
Gu Seo-ryong manipulated her body again, matching my height to stare into my eyes.
"You said you have nowhere to go after leaving the lab, right? I can promise you this—if you stay here, I’ll feed you delicious food like today until you’re full every day. You can have anything you want, even women… Heh, I’ll even forgive you if you want to hold other women when you’re bored."
"You want me to settle here?"
"Exactly. With a monster as strong as you around, I’d have nothing to worry about. Plus, I personally like strong men. A male as powerful as you won’t come around twice, so of course I’d… Hold on tight, right?"
Gu Seo-ryong flicked her forked tongue and coiled around me.
Feeling her half-liquefied body pressing fully against mine, I calmly tightened my grip on her neck and spoke.
"I don’t like repeating myself."
"Are you going to kill me if I don’t let go?"
"Yes."
"Hah! That’s fine by me. But… Can you actually kill me? You’re CXI, right?"
"Tch…"
Since she was also a former test subject from the same lab, I didn’t particularly want to kill her… But Gu Seo-ryong is still a monster.
I tightened my grip on her neck, intending to snap it.
Then, her neck melted away like ice cream.
"Ahaha! You really tried to break it! You’ve changed a lot!"
Her head, now dripping like melted ice cream, spoke from the back of my hand.
This wasn’t just body manipulation like liquefaction.
Hallucinations? Something felt off, so I immediately tried to transform it into my monster form.
"CXI? You can’t transform in my room. It’s filled with a fixative I made."
"Fixative?"
"It’s a drug that prevents you from leaving human form. Heh… Never thought I’d use it like this."
Focusing belatedly on my sense of smell, I detected a suspiciously fishy odor mixed with the humidifier’s mist.
The sensation of a human body stiffening from inhaling the vapor was incomprehensible, but one thing was clear, transformation was impossible.
Frowning at the sudden realization, Gu Seo-ryong spoke as if reading my mind.
"Ahah, that face is so cute~! Are you thinking, 'How can Gu Seo-ryong use her powers? Monster abilities shouldn’t work in human form,' right?"
"...Correct."
"Since you answered so obediently, I’ll tell you. This room is also my training space! Training to use monster abilities in human form—to pull a monster’s power into a human body."
Why train for that? And was it really possible just through training?
Remembering how Gu Seo-ryong had once dripped poison from her fingertips, I voiced my thoughts.
"So you’re mixing monster traits into human form?"
"Exactly. I call it monsterization. Cool, right? With enough practice… Ta-da! You can even do this!"
Gu Seo-ryong covered her hands and feet in scales, lifted her hips, and extended a long lizard tail.
Her black hair turned snow-white, and her crimson pupils split vertically.
Wrapping her sturdy tail around my waist, she pinned my arms with strength comparable to mine—unlike her usual human form.
Impressive. Mixing human and monster forms halfway was possible.
Even in human form, Gu Seo-ryong’s monster core emitted power close to a full Disaster-class.
This method of reaching Disaster-class didn’t seem efficient enough to make me want to learn it, but it was fascinating.
"Seems pretty useless. Why train for this?"
"Because women always want to be beautiful? My monster form isn’t as numerous or cute as yours, Black Cat."
My eyes widened at the name Black Cat. Sensing my reaction with a monster’s keen senses, Gu Seo-ryong smirked.
"So it is you, the Black Cat."
"How did you know?"
"Just a hunch, but it was worth suspecting. CXI is a Despair-class, the Black Cat is a Despair-class, and a monster helping humans is already unusual, right?"
"That’s all it took? Interesting."
"It was just suspicion~ Now, it’s confirmation."
To deduce I was the Black Cat from just that… Gu Seo-ryong was sharper than I thought.
Now certain, she curled her elongated tail tighter around me.
"Hmm… Since CXI is the Black Cat, I’m curious—why help humans? You’re a monster."
"Monsters can’t help humans?"
"They can, but it’s weird, right? We instinctively recognize humans as prey. Don’t you feel it?"
She was right. The scent of human blood made my mouth water, and the smell of a dying person made my core vibrate.
Monsters are humanity’s natural enemies; humans are monsters’ prey.
Protecting prey goes against the very nature of a monster.
But.
"Just ignore instincts."
"Hah! Ahahaha! So like you, CXI! Then again, if you were the type to be bound by instincts, you’d have devoured every monster in the lab and become a true abomination! You’re a monster who does what you want—never what you don’t."
"I don’t want to mate with you."
"I’m a monster who gets what I want, just like you. Even if you won’t join me, it’s fine. Even without you in my nest, as long as I have the Black Cat’s seed, I’ll bear strong offspring."
Dripping pheromones stickier than the humidifier’s mist, Gu Seo-ryong twitched at my indifferent tone and raised her venomous claws.
"...But you, you’re way too relaxed, aren’t you? You’re completely at my mercy here."
"Why should I be tense? You’re too weak."
True, Gu Seo-ryong’s power was between Disaster and Despair-class, but that was only enough to slightly wound me.
No matter what she did, she couldn’t kill me.
Like a cat overwhelming a snake, no matter how much she thrashed, it was just amusing.
Even as monsters, the gap between us was vast.
"Hmm… Annoying, but also cool? A male worthy of me bearing their seed should be this strong."
Gu Seo-ryong smirked and drove her venomous claws into my shoulder.
A biological poison, separate from her abilities, created by her monster body.
After injecting me with enough paralyzing toxin to stiffen my entire body, she pushed me onto the bed and licked the blood and venom from her fingertips.
"With this much poison, even you won’t be able to move for a day. How does it feel? Been a while, right?"
"A sedative?"
Exactly—like dunking my arms in industrial grease, my whole body felt sluggish and numb.
The sensation reminded me of the daily sedatives from the lab. As I frowned, Gu Seo-ryong flicked her fingers.
Snap, snap, snap…
The echoing sound rippled through my vision, warping it with circular waves.
White and black visual noise scrambled my sense of direction, paralyzing my spatial awareness.
"Hhhoww ddooeess thhiiss feeeel? Ddiiddn’tt exxxpeectt thhiss, ddiidd yyyouuu? IItt’ss aa tteechnniiiquue ssspeecciiifiicccalllyy fffoorr mmoonnsssterrss."
"I… Hear it. How?"
Blinking against the disorienting echoes, I struggled to stabilize my senses.
Like balancing on a rocking boat, my perception flickered between clarity and distortion.
"That’s a secret, CXI. If I told you, you’d adapt. You can’t adapt yet, so stay still."
"Tch…"
Gu Seo-ryong clenched and unclenched her hand before driving her claws into my neck again.
Gulp, gulp. With disgusting wet sounds, a new poison entered my body.
A numbing sensation clouded my mind—euphoria, the rhythmic thumping of Gu Seo-ryong’s core resonating through me like club music.
My nerves twitch in sync, reminding me of humans mating in clubs. Watching Gu Seo-ryong’s form warp, I spoke.
"The drugs sold in clubs… Was made from your poison?"
"Yep. Like it? I heard you’re resistant. Let’s see how long that lasts~ Hehe, you’ll love it soon."
"Tch…"
I closed my eyes, focusing on my slow-moving monster core, submerged as if in cement.
I could metabolize the toxins eventually. The paralysis, the fixative effects—if I absorbed it all, I’d move freely again.
But it would take time.
"You’re stronger than I thought."
"Oh? Does that mean I pass? Will you give me your seed?"
"Not that strong."
Gu Seo-ryong, knowing that as well as I did, retracted her tail and scales, grinning triumphantly atop me.
"Ahaha! Doesn’t matter. You’re already addicted enough. I can just force it out—"
Then, through the glass wall, a comet streaked across the distant sky.
Frowning at the familiar shape, Gu Seo-ryong stiffened and looked outside.
The approaching comet shifted into a human form, stopping just outside the window.
"Ha, what the hell?"
[Gu Seo-ryong, Lord of the Guryongseong—no, boss of the Villain Organization.]
Starlight frowned at the sight of us through the window, then raised a finger and drew a large circle in the air.
The glass silently melted away, collapsing slowly as the murmurs of clubgoers noticing Starlight grew louder.
"Bribery of high-ranking officials… Murder, robbery, theft, prostitution… Need I go on?"
Wearing an expression I hadn’t seen in a while, Starlight clenched a fist, igniting a white flame.
With a gust, she extinguished it and glared at Gu Seo-ryong.
"By my authority, you’re under emergency arrest. If you don’t want to die, come quietly."