66
Ch.66 Worm
‘Human flesh sausage? Did you prepare this because I'm a monster?’
I kept moving my mouth while observing the man in front of me.
There was no villainous scent coming from him.
Even the faint traces of his thoughts felt unusually calm.
It almost seemed like he might not even know this was human flesh sausage.
"How is it? Does it suit your taste?"
"...Meow."
The human flesh sausage the man gave me... Was perfectly tailored to a monster's palate.
The balance of blood, fat, meat, organs, skin, and brain was just right, creating a rich, melt-in-your-mouth flavor.
Especially the chewy bits of organs and the smooth, fatty brain... It was disgustingly delicious.
As I swallowed the human flesh sausage with relish, my fur bristled, and the man smiled and pulled out something else.
"Here, there's more."
The second thing he offered me was a bright red jelly sealed in a container.
The smell of blood—this time, jelly made from human blood and fat.
It was hard to refuse... The scent was too intense.
The metallic savoriness, the sweet fat—I accepted the blood jelly and glared at the man while activating my ability.
Offering something like this twice could only mean he knew this was food made from humans.
Yet, despite presenting such things, the man remained eerily calm.
Feeling a strange dissonance—neither human nor monster—I spoke using my ability.
[...What? Who are you?]
"Oh, oooh...! Black Cat is speaking... Ah, as expected, Black Cat is the Messiah foretold in the prophecy..."
[Where did this meat come from?]
"Do you want more? I'll give you more."
At that moment, the man raised two fingers and activated his ability.
Swoosh—a blade of telekinetic energy shot from his fingertips and slashed toward his own arm.
With a quiet slicing sound, he severed his arm and extended it toward me.
"Here, Black Cat... Please, take as much as you want."
Stunned, I instinctively stepped back.
What the hell is this guy? He doesn’t even have regenerative abilities.
A superpower human, power rank between C and B—his condition is too strange to be a hero.
"Black Cat, please."
[I don’t need it.]
The blood jelly and human flesh sausage smelled so unnaturally delicious, as if they were condensed versions of everything a monster craved, but I had no desire to eat the freshly severed arm.
When I refused, the man, with his face pale and blood dripping arm, looked disappointed.
"Ah... Please, I beg you, eat it. Black Cat..."
[You... Are strange.]
Sensing an inexplicable emotion, I faintly grasped what it was.
Worship and reverence—the man, bleeding profusely as if on the verge of death, bowed his head before me and offered his severed arm and head.
"Oh god, salvation..."
God, salvation—the words Starlight once said flashed through my mind. Just then, thin white worms began crawling out from the severed part of the man's arm.
Parasites. Sensing something deeply wrong, I leaped back and hurled a fireball at him.
Whoosh! Engulfed in flames, the man radiated thick, sticky waves of joy as he bowed his head toward me.
He died instantly.
I stomped on the charred corpse.
The texture confirmed it was human.
But... Calling this human, felt wrong in so many ways.
This man wasn’t human in a different sense from villains.
What the hell is going on?
***
After killing the man who gave me human meat, more and more of these strange people began appearing.
"Black Cat! Please enjoy this!"
"Waaah! Black Cat!"
"Ahhh... Black Cat...!"
Among the people who jokingly called me Black Cat, a woman exuded feelings of worship and reverence.
The sausage she threw at me reeked of human blood.
Eating human flesh like this wouldn’t let me devour fear-filled thoughts or accumulate curses.
It was just a lump of meat that tasted disgustingly delicious to a monster’s palate.
Whenever I gave in and took a bite, the person who offered the human flesh sausage would radiate thick, sticky waves of euphoria and ecstasy.
Not just young women—elderly people, middle-aged women, men too.
Disgusted by the increasing number of human flesh sausages, I retreated to the rooftops.
Then, the humans who had offered me meat began committing suicide nearby.
Glancing down... I saw more than a few in the alleyways stabbing their own throats or severing their limbs.
From their wounds, worms quickly gathered and swarmed.
I summoned flames and burned each of the strange corpses one by one.
Yet, the next day, more of these people appeared.
They gathered in deserted areas, only to be attacked by Terror-class monsters.
When monster alerts sounded, they’d come running from afar, lay out sausages and blood pudding from their bags, then sever their fingers, legs, or wrists.
"Ah... Black Cat."
"Salvation, salvation."
"Messenger of god..."
"Please, eat this."
"I beg you, consume my body."
White thread-like worms poked their heads out from the severed flesh. Disgusted, I avoided them—only for them to kill themselves on the spot.
Afterward, their corpses would again swarm with worms. Feeling something deeply wrong, I repeatedly incinerated the worms and bodies.
Once the bodies were burned, only the blood pudding and human flesh sausages remained.
These were nothing more than food made from pure human blood and meat in the perfect ratio.
The fact that the ratio was perfectly tailored to a monster’s taste was deeply unsettling.
How many times have these guys made this?
How many monsters have they fed humans to, to perfect this flavor?
Around this time, I realized a flaw in my method of identifying humans.
I could distinguish villains filled with malice and bloodlust (along with anticipation), but I couldn’t identify these strange people who radiated nothing.
And these strange people were gradually blending into W-City’s populace.
Their scent—unlike other cities—faded, their clothes and smiles resembling W-City’s citizens.
Then, suddenly, they’d go to a corner, pull out a knife, and stab their own throats.
After burning the swarming worms, another human would approach with fresh sausages.
The cycle of suicides within my senses wore me down mentally, so I resolved to refuse all food.
Once I stopped accepting anything but the meat given by heroes, their approach changed.
Rooftops—they’d look up at me flying in the sky, then kill themselves one by one.
Before their corpses, human flesh sausages and blood pudding were neatly arranged like ritual offerings...
After their suicides, small worm-like monsters floating in the sky would swarm the corpses and begin devouring them.
The worms chewed through the bodies, bones and all, then returned to the sky without attacking other humans.
Sensing something deeply wrong, I decided to observe these strange humans closely.
"Oooh... Messiah..."
"Salvation, salvation..."
Thick, sticky waves of joy upon seeing me—yet also a sense of emptiness.
Watching them sever fingers or press knives to their throats, I gripped them with telekinesis and demanded,
[What are you?]
"We... Are your servants."
"Your food, lambs born to die for you."
"Please."
"Please."
But even telekinesis couldn’t stop them from dying.
Their eyes suddenly turned red, blood poured from their mouths, and they died.
Had they swallowed poison? Soon after, white thread-like worms wriggled out from their bloodied mouths and severed fingers.
Hearing a buzzing above, I incinerated their bodies before the worms could swarm.
"Messenger of god, we are grateful to witness you in reality."
[Why do you kill yourselves?]
"Because it is the path to salvation. To be chosen by the messenger of god."
[Where did you come from?]
"We are from Samwonkyo—your home, Samwonkyo."
My home? They kept spouting nonsense as they killed themselves.
Why would humans willingly end their lives?
"Salvation."
"Oh god!"
"Please, choose us!"
Exhausted by the endless suicides, I hid underground.
Yet they didn’t stop.
As if announcing their deaths, worm monsters gathered on the corpses.
Then, something tore through the swarm.
"Meow? There’s so many worms!"
"Hey, these are some weird kids swarming around!"
Under the dark night sky, Gu Seo-ryong and Sagugu appeared.
Sagugu slaughtered the worm monsters, while Gu Seo-ryong looked down at the shadow where I hid and said,
"Come up and talk for a bit. I came out because these things are causing a ruckus near my place too."
[...Hm.]
I returned to the surface and landed before Gu Seo-ryong.
In her half-transformed monstrous state, she examined a half-devoured human corpse with amused interest.
"This tattoo... Samwonkyo again?"
[You know about them?]
"Of course. These lunatics have been around since I escaped the lab four years ago."
"Meow~!"
While Sagugu, in a form similar to mine, happily chased the worm monsters, Gu Seo-ryong poked at the mangled corpse.
I shifted into human form beside her.
"Fanatics who believe salvation comes from being killed by monsters. They think... The Age of Monsters is divine punishment—Har Megiddo, was it?"
"Har Megiddo?"
"The end times. Basically... Monsters are divine messengers and punishment. Resisting increases sin, submission reduces it. Die to a monster, go to heaven; otherwise, hell. Surprisingly, they have a decent following... By the way, you don’t smell anything tasty here?"
"They tried to feed me sausages, blood pudding, and their own bodies."
"Huh? What’s this? Smells human—human flesh sausage?"
"Meow? Meow!"
Gu Seo-ryong swallowed a sausage whole, smacking her lips before gesturing to Sagugu.
Nearby, Sagugu, having finished off the worms, ate the blood pudding and brightened up.
"This is good! Bait to lure monsters, huh?"
"Bait?"
"Monsters can’t resist this smell. They’re stimulating the instinct to devour humans, trying to get eaten."
Suddenly, their words—choice and salvation—flashed through my mind.
Being eaten by me meant being chosen by a divine messenger. The human flesh sausages and blood pudding were offerings—bribes for salvation and tools to provoke a monster’s instincts.
But why would being eaten by a monster mean salvation?
It made no sense. No wonder Gu Seo-ryong called them crazy.
If even a monster like me finds them strange, they must be seriously messed up.
"By the way, you didn’t eat any of this, right?"
"I didn’t."
By this, she meant the human corpses.
I admitted to eating some sausages and pudding but burning all the worm-infested bodies. Gu Seo-ryong smacked her lips.
"Phew, that’s a relief."
She filled her mouth with corrosive acid and spat it onto the corpses, melting them.
The flesh dissolved into brown sludge as white worms writhed in agony.
"I came all the way here because of these worms."