74
Ch.74 Looking for the Cat
“Don’t you think there are fewer beetles around today?”
“Did we exterminate them?”
“Eek!”
W-City, plagued by parasitic monsters.
The heroes patrolling the city in three shifts noticed something unusual today—the insect monsters seemed to have disappeared. Just the day before, they had been multiplying rapidly, appearing in the morning, afternoon, evening, and even dawn. But today, only a few stragglers were spotted in the morning and afternoon.
Could it finally be over? The exhausted heroes clung to that hope but didn’t dare voice it aloud. Instead, they desperately rested, making sure not to waste their current luck. They remained on high alert, ready to spring into action at any moment.
Meanwhile, Yoo Anna seized the opportunity to file a proper report in the Hero Archive.
The parasitic monsters weren’t even Terror-class—if judged solely by rank, they weren’t worth worrying about.
At first, other cities laughed at W-City’s situation. But the S-rank heroes who knew Starlight (Yoo Anna) understood—if Starlight was struggling, these monsters were no joke.
And so, the report Yoo Anna wrote in her drowsy state prompted heroes from other cities to check if their own cities were infested with parasites.
The next day, after exterminating four insect monsters, the heroes of W-City finally relaxed a little and went to sleep—though they kept their alarms on, just in case.
But the alarms never went off.
When they woke up and began their patrols, they heard that only Terror-class monsters like lizards or frogs had appeared overnight.
The heroes of W-City wondered if the insect monster incident was finally over.
But if so… Why?
"Black Cat! Black Cat! Where are you?"
Yoo Anna, already suspicious of the connection between D-City, the parasites, and the Black Cat, flew around anxiously, calling out for the feline.
But no matter where she searched in W-City, waving meat around, the Black Cat didn’t appear.
At first, the other heroes laughed at Yoo Anna’s behavior, but as time passed, their expressions hardened.
The Black Cat was gone.
"Black Cat! Where did you go?!"
"You didn’t get infected and leave W-City, did you?!"
"Black Cat~! Meow!"
As the heroes searched for the Black Cat, news of its absence quickly spread among the citizens.
Though the heroes eventually stopped their search, the rumors had already taken root, and the citizens grew anxious, joining the hunt.
"Blackkie~! Where are you, Blackkie?!"
"Meow! If you come out now, I’ll give you meat! A whole box of it!"
"Why isn’t it coming out even when we call it like this?"
"Uh… Now that I think about it, has the Black Cat ever come when called?"
"Maybe it went to sleep? Since there are no monsters, it must’ve found a quiet place to rest."
"Sleep? At this hour? It should be starving and begging for meat by now!"
"Then what? Did the Black Cat get infected and… Kill itself?!"
"Heartworms are fatal to cats…"
"Waaah! Blackkie’s gone!"
"Hey! My kid can hear you!"
"S-sorry…"
The citizens grew uneasy, fearing the Black Cat had died from the parasites.
No longer needing to hide their search, the heroes intensified their efforts, spreading waves of energy to locate the missing feline.
The heroes of W-City had adapted to the Black Cat’s stealth abilities, refining their techniques to detect monsters through energy waves.
They swept through the entire city, determined to find any trace of the Black Cat.
But no matter how thoroughly they searched, there was nothing; the Black Cat was likely no longer in W-City.
With grim expressions, the heroes gathered in the meeting room.
"Why did it disappear? It was catching bugs for us just a while ago."
"Maybe it's brain got eaten by parasites…"
"Hey, you bastard! You think the Black Cat would die like that? Its regeneration is insane—if its brain got eaten, it’d just explode and regrow!"
"R-really? If parasites eat your brain, isn’t that the end? They control you by protecting the brain."
"Sigh… Where did it go? It’s not really dead, right?"
Leaving the Black Cat alone was never an option—sooner or later, it had to be hunted.
For the heroes, the death of such a threatening monster should have been cause for celebration.
But not a single hero in the room looked happy.
[Where’s the Black Cat? Where’s the Black Cat? Where’s the Black Cat? Where’s the Black Cat?]
[Did the heroes hide the Black Cat to protect it from the parasites? Tell me they did! Please!]
[How does a cat that was flying around with heroes suddenly vanish?]
[My kid is scared because the Black Cat’s gone. It’s not really gone, right? Just napping somewhere?]
[Seriously, where is the Black Cat? I took a day off to see it since the bugs disappeared, but it’s nowhere!]
The heroes combed through surveillance footage, searching for the Black Cat’s last known location.
They scoured community boards for eyewitness accounts, waiting for any sign of the missing cat.
[I found the Black Cat!]
[Where?]
[Where??]
[Where? Coordinates!]
[A certain black-haired, fierce-looking cat is at my house~]
[You bastard, where do you live? Give me the coordinates.]
[Why hasn’t this guy died from parasites yet?]
[I’ll sue you.]
After collectively reporting the troll, the heroes sighed and began discussing the situation.
The parasites rampaging in W-City had one goal: the Black Cat.
Or more accurately, the goal of the Monster Cult.
"Don’t tell me it really got infected and went to D-City…?"
"We found the last surveillance footage of the Black Cat!"
"They’re upscaling it now!"
Anxious, the heroes rushed to W-City’s Integrated Control Center as soon as the news broke.
The center, usually filled only with non-awakened assistants and navigators, was now packed with heroes. Together, they reviewed the footage.
"Uh… Uh? That’s…?"
"Where is it going?"
Late at night, the Black Cat was last seen at the edge of the city wall, heading outside.
The small shadow of a large cat under the moonlight was unmistakably the Black Cat.
The heroes turned to the map, predicting its direction.
The path led straight to D-City, the very place they had feared.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it…!"
"They stole our cat… Like an A-rank stealing my ex from Hero Academy…"
"Aaaaah! My brain is melting!"
"You damn Monster Cult bastards! Sons of bitches!"
The reason the beetles disappeared from W-City was because they had achieved their goal, brainwashing the Black Cat.
Realizing this, the heroes seethed with energy in the control room.
The coldest presence among them was Yoo Anna, standing silently.
"...Connect me to D-City."
"Huh? Y-yes?"
"Connect. Me. Now. Navigator."
"Eek!"
The navigator, startled by Yoo Anna’s uncharacteristically icy gaze, hastily connected to D-City’s control center.
But there was no response.
"Did those bastards eat the Black Cat already?! Now they won’t even pick up?!"
"Sons of bitches! If a Despair-class monster appears, don’t expect help from W-City!"
"They’ll just feed the Black Cat parasite-infected meat!"
"A damn cult city!"
"Just die! Disappear from the world!"
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!!"
Yoo Anna’s furious voice silenced the chaos.
Amidst the tense quiet, she took the navigator’s seat and began pressing buttons.
After a dial tone, A-City answered.
[Yes, this is A-City Integrated Control Center.]
"This is S-rank Starlight of W-City. Get Kage. Now."
[Kage is currently in a meeting—]
Yoo Anna gritted her teeth, her voice dripping with menace.
"Hey, what’s your name?"
[Huh?]
"Don’t you know that an S-rank calling another S-rank means it’s an emergency? Get him now."
[J-just a moment, please wait.]
Soon, Kage’s voice came through.
[What’s going on, Starlight? We’re busy with your report. Unless you’re sending parasite samples—]
"Send reinforcements to D-City. Right now."
Kage sighed.
[We’ve discussed this. There’s insufficient justification for an emergency investigation into D-City. No hero casualties, only speculation. We’ve left dealings with the Monster Cult to D-City’s S-rank, Vector.]
"The Black Cat headed to D-City."
[...Don’t tell me it got infected? A Despair-class monster?]
Kage’s voice grew tense. If the Black Cat—a monster that had settled peacefully in W-City—had suddenly left for D-City, it could only mean one thing: brainwashed by the Monster Cult.
If the parasites had already taken over D-City, they’d have to be classified as a special type of Annihilation-class threat.
City collapse, Annihilation-class emergence, monster weaponization by a non-government faction—every possibility was dire.
"I told you! Investigate D-City!"
Yoo Anna exploded, her patience gone.
"You ignored us when we begged for help! You laughed at us for struggling with weak monsters! You think it’s funny because you’ve never experienced it?!"
She mocked Kage’s past words,
“‘Struggling with sub-Terror-class monsters? Maybe you rely too much on the Black Cat~?’”
Then she screamed into the receiver:
"Samples?! How are we supposed to extract samples that melt under hero energy?! We nearly lost a researcher last time! Should we send more people to die?!"
Yoo Anna’s patience had run out.
No help had come despite their struggles.
Researchers refused to come, too scared of brain-eating parasites, demanding samples instead.
"Are you stupid?! Do you think W-City is a joke?! Only A-City matters to you?!"
"You perfect superpower humans love writing off the Black Cat as a threat—but what about the parasites?! Want to chase invisible, alarm-undetectable monsters like us?!"
"Now we might have to fight the Black Cat too—also undetectable! You—! Aaaah!!"
CRASH!
Yoo Anna threw the receiver, clutching her head in frustration.
The navigator blinked, then connected the mic.
"SEND REINFORCEMENTS, YOU BASTARD! NOW! TO D-City!"
Kage hesitated, then relented.
[...Understood. I’ll treat this as an emergency. But D-City isn’t responding—]
"JUST SEND THEM!"
A tense silence followed.
Then, Kage spoke again, his voice strained.
[I’ve forcibly accessed D-City’s servers with master codes. Sharing the screen now.]
The control room’s main display lit up with D-City’s data logs.
The navigators frowned immediately.
"...Why are the records like this?"
"Alarm logs are blocked from auto-uploading. These are dummy files."
"Why is the hard drive in that state? Surveillance footage would be deleted in a day."
"How did they submit regular reports like this...?"
Something was very wrong.
The system was full of holes—either neglected for a long time or deliberately sabotaged.