91
Ch.91 Go To
"...So, the maximum time Meister can buy us is about 10 days?"
"Hmm."
"Mom! Look at this! A rhinoceros beetle!"
District 4, empty lot.
After thoroughly discussing with Meister, I explained the current situation to Gu Seo-ryong.
Meister agreed to cooperate with me and said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take this opportunity to try something called "rest."
The maximum duration for that is 10 days.
"Realistically, she can stay for a week, and she said she’ll try to hold out for an additional 3 days if needed."
"Then it’s safe to assume a week. Hmm, I don’t know what to say… Did you really resolve it through conversation? How did you persuade her?"
"Mom! A stag beetle!"
"Is it because of Meister’s ability? Her ability to answer questions—knowing that CXI is a monster that helps humans, makes it trustworthy?"
"Mom! A weevil!"
"Just being able to verify if someone is trustworthy is an incredibly powerful ability… Sagugu, could you stop putting bugs on Mom’s head?"
After hearing the full explanation, Gu Seo-ryong brushed off the bugs hanging from her hair and stood up.
"Alright, then we should get moving right away."
"Right now?"
"No need to waste time debating like humans do, right? We have a time limit. Sagugu? Come here."
"Unyanya."
"Let’s go now. Okay?"
"I’m hungry."
"We’ll eat when we get there. There’s lots of tasty food in A-City."
With that, Gu Seo-ryong sank Sagugu into her shadow, leaped onto the rooftops, and approached the walls of W-City.
Despite three monsters freely moving around inside W-City, not a single alarm sounded.
"Where are we going?"
"If we go that way, we’ll be caught on surveillance cameras. We should avoid being recorded when leaving too. Here, this way."
"What’s different about going that way?"
"There’s a very slight blind spot in the surveillance cameras. Just follow my footsteps."
Unlike when heading to D-City, we stealthily exited W-City in human form under Gu Seo-ryong’s guidance.
Her movements, avoiding surveillance cameras at every turn, piqued my curiosity.
"How do you know all this?"
"It’s a smuggling route provided by the Villain Association. Think of it as a drug drop-off point for villains who take the train close to the city. Got it?"
"I should report this to Starlight."
"Do whatever you want. Even if you tell her, she’ll just create a new route."
Through bushes, trash, and the skeletal remains of broken buildings.
Once we were far enough from W-City, Gu Seo-ryong flicked her fingers, and Sagugu popped out of the shadows and clung to her.
" Sagugu was quiet!"
"Good job, that’s my Sagugu. Hey, Sagugu, can you give Mom a ride?"
"Walkies!"
In unusually high spirits today, Sagugu carried Gu Seo-ryong on her back and trotted along quietly.
Beside her, I ran at a moderate pace in my monster form, conversing with Gu Seo-ryong.
[Do you really need to ride on Sagugu’s back? Just transform into your monster form.]
"Nope. I don’t wanna transform, remember?"
[ Sagugu is too slow.]
"Isn’t this fast enough? It’s way faster than me transforming."
[At this speed, it’ll take about 3 hours to reach A-City.]
The distance between cities isn’t as far as one might think.
Back when all the roads were intact, it supposedly took only 1 to 2 hours by car.
Now, even the trains between cities aren’t that fast, so it takes considerably longer.
But that’s only by human standards.
I can move much faster than that.
"You can go faster, right? But I can’t."
"Unyanya?"
"Wah?!"
The resonance of the monster core— Sagugu’s eyes seemed to say, I can run faster too?
Meeting her gaze, I silently urged her to try, and Sagugu picked up speed.
Beside her, I gradually increased my speed, turning my entire body into lightning as I tore through the air ahead. Sagugu followed, leaping through space to keep up.
"W-wait, hey!"
The ability to leap through space couldn’t carry Gu Seo-ryong along.
Leaving her far behind, Sagugu and I raced for a while before stopping at a riverside.
"Running is fun!"
[You’re pretty fast.]
"Thirsty!"
[Hmm.]
Slurp, slurp—after our run, Sagugu and I crouched by the river to drink. Gu Seo-ryong finally caught up much later.
"Huff… Huff… Huff…"
[You’re late, Gu Seo-ryong.]
"Mom’s slow!"
"I hate you guys when you’re like this… Sagugu, give Mom some water too…"
"Water!"
"Not like that, Mom wants water… Let’s rest for a bit. I’m exhausted."
[Weak.]
Sagugu, in her humanoid form, cupped water in her hands and offered it, then opened a spatial rift to pull out a water bottle.
Gu Seo-ryong wiped sweat from her forehead with one hand, making me think about a lot of things.
She maintained her humanoid form even after Sagugu and I raced ahead.
Was there really a need to go that far?
"Mom! Look! A flower!"
"Sometimes, this kid—and you—do the cutest things… Ah, but this is a plant-type monster. Terror-class? Sagugu, eat it."
"Nyam…"
As Sagugu devoured the Terror-class monster like a bug, the surrounding monsters scattered in fear.
Sensing their presence, Sagugu chased after them, playing around the empty lot.
I, now in human form, quietly watched Gu Seo-ryong playing with Sagugu before asking a question.
"Gu Seo-ryong, why do you want revenge on the research institute?"
"Oh? You’re asking now?"
"I won’t know unless I ask."
"...That’s such a human thing to say."
Sitting on a completely broken bench, Gu Seo-ryong watched Sagugu running wildly through the overgrown ruins of the park before answering.
"Probably not the same reason as you… Why do you want to destroy the research institute?"
"They keep creating test subjects."
"You don’t want to let them keep harming humans? That’s very you."
"Is it the same for you?"
"No way. I don’t care what happens to humans or whatever."
Gu Seo-ryong was a villain. That made sense.
So, her desire for revenge was purely personal.
"A woman’s grudge. I was confident, I was incredibly pretty, you know? Once I was old enough to leave the orphanage, I was sure I could make a living as a streamer, celebrity, or whatever, just with my looks. Then suddenly, I was dragged away and turned into this hideous monster. Do you have any idea how pissed I was?"
Her voice carried no genuine emotion.
There was something else.
"Is that so?"
"Monsters are cool?"
"Ugh, seriously… This is why cats are the worst."
"I don’t really get it, but I can tell you’re lying."
Still, if she didn’t want to talk about it, there was no need to press further.
Listening to Gu Seo-ryong’s heartbeat, I decided we’d rested enough and stood up.
Then, she let out a sticky, amused resonance.
"Don’t flirt with me."
"Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to. Chasing after you and Gu-gu must’ve weakened the drug’s effects."
Plunk. She stabbed her fingernail into her neck and injected venom.
"Monsters struggle to resist their instincts, right?"
That was the poison Gu Seo-ryong had mentioned before.
A venom to suppress instincts and maintain humanity.
After injecting enough, she naturally climbed onto my back.
"Let’s go."
"What are you doing?"
"You’re gonna run like that again, right? I’m tired. Carry me."
"If you want a ride, get on Sagugu."
"She dropped me last time. You won’t drop me, right?"
It was a fair point. I transformed, biting the nape of Gu Seo-ryong’s neck.
"Eek?! Ah, this… Might not be so bad…?"
[Shut up. You’ll swallow bugs.]
"Unyanyanya!"
Whoosh. Accelerating toward A-City, Sagugu, who’d been playing in the empty lot, quickly followed.
By the time the sun began to set, the three Disaster-class monsters arrived at A-City’s walls, quietly exchanging glances in the bushes.
Gu Seo-ryong fiddled with her phone, checked something, and pointed in a direction.
"Perfect timing. There’s a smuggling route right where we need it. Head under that camera."
The words Villain floated on her phone screen—likely a secret Villain Association site.
Fascinating how they used this to identify the city’s weak points.
"Follow my footsteps carefully again."
Demonstrating, Gu Seo-ryong silently approached the wall and slid up like a shadow.
Meanwhile, Sagugu and I opened a spatial rift to enter inside.
"...Ah."
Gu Seo-ryong’s face flushed red.
There was no need to worry about surveillance blind spots or anything like that.
We could just open a rift in an unmonitored location and move through it.
"Oh right, you both have those abilities… Could’ve said something earlier? Why’d you follow me before?"
"It looked fun."
"It was fun!"
"Ugh, fine… Then can you open a rift here?"
Sounding exasperated, Sagugu and I followed Gu Seo-ryong’s directions, opening rifts where needed to move deeper into A-City.
We navigated through alleys and deserted corners, avoiding rooftops. Sagugu and I kept peering outside the alleyways.
"So many lights!"
"So many humans."
A-City was clearly different from W-City in many ways.
The most striking difference was the large river cutting through the city center.
Tall, sprawling walls and skyscrapers surrounded it.
From a monster-attack perspective, such tall buildings were just hazards.
Did they really believe they could subdue monsters without destroying the buildings?
The citizens didn’t seem particularly afraid of monsters either.
Tiny drones flew overhead, surveilling the entire city.
Even at night, the city blazed with light—countless human presences, and above all… A flawless saturation of heroes.
The periodic resonance of abilities sent warnings to weaker monsters.
There are plenty of tasty humans here, but come here, and you’ll die.
For stronger monsters, this was an irresistible lure.
Come here, and you’ll have the most delicious feast.
Yet, the fact that they did this meant they were confident they could handle it.
"Fascinating."
"What is?"
"It’s so different from W-City."
My first impression was prosperity.
Even a glance made it obvious—resources overflowed here.
Buildings, food smells, the number of heroes, and surveillance systems.
Next was sterility.
Despite such prosperity, I barely sensed happiness from the citizens.
A bland, lifeless scent. Was this also designed to suppress monsters’ appetites?
"Is this your first time in A-City?"
"Isn’t it yours?"
"Hmm… Well, not exactly. I was originally a citizen of A-City."
Click, click. Walking deeper into the alley, Gu Seo-ryong pried open a synthetic board blocking a wall with her fingernails.
"Follow me. Let’s rest here for today."
"What is this place?"
"A temporary hideout. Doesn’t seem like anyone’s using it now, so we won’t get caught."
The building’s basement. Damp, humid air filled the staircase descending into darkness.
A barred door came into view.
Gu Seo-ryong slid a fingernail into the keyhole, effortlessly unlocking it before striding confidently into the dark.
Not because her monster eyes could see in the dark.
Her movements suggested she knew the layout.
"Have you been here before?"
"Huh? Well… Not exactly been here, but—"
Squeak. Mouse noises echoed as we passed cells with barred doors.
Gu Seo-ryong opened one, fiddled with something on the wall, and red lights flooded the basement.
"I was born here."