Mom
“Mooooooo……!”
Once a month, a single dairy cow was shoved into the iron cage.
Pitifully, all four of its legs were bound tight, and it could do nothing but cry out in sorrow.
It was the first animal I had put my mouth on after being dragged to this place.
Truth was, I hadn’t eaten it because I was hungry or because it tasted good.
It was too cramped and stifling in here.
I wanted to go home already.
Irritating. Where even is this?
Why is everyone bullying me?
…I’m stressed.
In a fit of rage—and to blow off that stress—I chewed the dairy cow up a little roughly and swallowed it down.
No special flavor to it.
Still, I just wanted to chew on something.
I felt like I wouldn’t be able to hold on otherwise.
Sorry. I’m sorry, cow. You don’t have feelings. But my teeth were itchy, so I couldn’t help it.
…I’m not the bad one. Humans are the bad ones.
Crunch! Crunch!
I muttered that to myself as I chewed and swallowed even the cow’s bones.
Nothing beat binge-eating and venting your feelings when it came to killing stress.
But maybe it was because I showed them that side of me?
“Here, eat up.”
“Hey, Management Team lady! We’re done, so open the door already!”
“Watch yourself when you turn around. Don’t make eye contact.”
From then on, the humans started dragging dairy cows in front of me. As if they knew perfectly well what my favorite food was.
Humans were stupid and arrogant.
They were more violent than me, too.
So I didn’t even want to deal with them.
“Looks as hideous as I heard.”
“You crazy bastard! What if you make eye contact by mistake?”
“That’s why the Foundation gave us the goggles. And I didn’t look at its face, okay?”
“Kwahaha! There’s no one who lives as recklessly as you after getting a death sentence!”
The orange people who had dragged the cow in.
They thought I couldn’t understand human language, so every time they came in they cursed and mocked me.
They firmly believed those flimsy iron bars in front of them would protect them.
Humans really are irritating. Except for that one guy…….
Today I didn’t even bother growling a warning.
The person I was waiting for was someone else.
I had a friend now, so I just had to endure until then.
…I clearly thought that and tried to ignore them.
“Honestly I’m curious—maybe I should take a little look too?”
“Go on, take a look. It’s so grotesque it looks like a dead corpse.”
“Kwahaha! This thing doesn’t even look like you could sell the hide. Is it really dead?”
Thud. Thud.
The orange humans picked up the cow bones scattered across the floor and threw them at me.
A childish provocation.
Compared to the experiments the Foundation guys put me through, it was nothing.
“…Crong.”
So I just tried to ignore it.
“Whoa, so disgustingly grotesque! Doesn’t it smell like a rotting corpse from somewhere?”
“Don’t stimulate it too much—didn’t you see it just move?!”
“Making a fuss over turning around scared. Huh? Looking closely, it’s got wings too?”
“Kwahahaha! Those are wings? Kim, you take a look too. It’s safe—its back’s turned.”
“R-really? Why is the Foundation so scared of a thing like this?”
“Dunno. If it hasn’t eaten anything for half a year, it shouldn’t have any strength left.”
“By the way, what even is that thing? If it’s really a living creature, wouldn’t it have parents?”
“What parents for a monster like that? Of course it doesn’t have a mom either.”
Until those words reached my ears.
…Mom?
Suddenly it felt like my blood was boiling backwards.
Did they just say I don’t have a mom either?
A lowly species daring to say something like that to me?
Who was it that forcibly dragged me out of Mom’s nest???
Humans are so irritating after all inferior beings I have to kill them all down to the bones wipe out their seed then Mom will me kill them kill kill
“All personnel who entered Laboratory 9595! Evacuate immediately! Hurry!”
In the control room on the other side of the special glass wall that sealed off the lab.
“Do not provoke 9595! I told you it’s too dangerous already, you idiots!”
Park So-lim shouted into the microphone.
It was because of the three Experimental Class personnel who had stepped inside the containment lab to feed Cro.
“…So-lim?”
She had stepped in before I could even tell her about Cro’s condition.
Well, anyone could see this had crossed the line.
Deliberately picking a fight with an anomaly? Did they have multiple lives or something?
“H-hey, Kim? They said stop it!”
“What’re they gonna do if we don’t stop? They can’t even come inside because they’re scared.”
“Right. They dump all the dangerous work on us and won’t even let us have a little fun? That’s just unfair.”
“Hey! You disgusting reptile bastard! Hurry up and eat already!”
“We brought you your favorite dairy cow—why won’t you eat it?”
Heh heh heh!
But even after Park So-lim’s warning, they only grew more defiant, banging on the bars and raising the level of their taunts.
And the result:
“H-huh…?!”
“Fuck! I made eye contact!”
“Aaaagh! My eyes……!!!!!”
“Gyaaaaaaah!!! M-my legs…?!”
“S-save me——!”
“Open the door you fucking bastards! You said the bars were safe!”
—Crunch! Crack! Squelch!
The laboratory was soon filled with the sounds of flesh tearing, bones snapping, and horrific screams.
The glass wall was instantly painted with the blood of the Experimental Class personnel.
“Those fucking idiots…….”
Park So-lim absolutely refused to open the door.
She simply watched the scene of the gruesome slaughter and muttered curses under her breath.
She was surprisingly calm about it—like this happened fairly often.
“What do we do? People died.”
“Haa… those guys dying doesn’t matter. The real pain is cleaning the lab.”
“Excuse me?”
“Didn’t you hear those pieces of trash talking earlier? They’re violent criminals.”
Of course. Exactly the same as the setting I already knew.
Most of the personnel sent in for experiments on the entities were criminals.
Especially those involved in murder or other serious violent crimes—the Foundation used them with the promise of reduced sentences. They never even realized they were destined to die before finishing their terms.
“Can’t we just have other Experimental Class personnel clean it up?”
“No. We can’t show them that members of their own class died. They need to believe their lives are safe if they’re going to follow the Foundation’s orders.”
“So that’s why you told them the bars would keep them safe.”
“Exactly. And the bars really are extremely sturdy, built with the Foundation’s technology.”
“They bent like soft taffy, though.”
“That’s how absurdly powerful 9595 is.”
At last the screams coming through the speakers died out.
Cro must have torn them apart so thoroughly that their original forms were unrecognizable.
“Anyway, so who’s doing the cleaning?”
“Regular Class personnel, or if we’re short-handed, even team leaders get dragged out to do the dirty work without exception.”
“…Ah.”
Now I finally understood why Park So-lim had tried so hard to stop them.
Even the Foundation didn’t seem all that different from any other company when it came to handling work.
“Crong! Crong! Crorong!”
That aside, Cro’s cries were so sorrowful they carried all the way here through the thick glass wall.
“Um, Han-sung?”
“Yes?”
“I won’t ask you to clean up corpses on your first day of work. Instead… could you try to calm 9595 down a little?”
My first mission, dropped on me out of nowhere.
Suddenly asking me to stop the rampage of an Immortal Class anomaly…….
It was definitely a heavy request, but it was also something only I could do.
“Alright.”
I nodded without much hesitation.
“In exchange, could you prepare a few things I ask for?”
There was something I wanted to check, after all.
Every living thing has blood flowing through it.
Humans, dairy cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits—no exceptions.
They were all so weak that even a little rough play made them break and spill blood easily.
Blood is red.
Red is good.
It was the color that stained Mom’s nest, after all.
Every time she brought back prey for me, bright red blood would burst and beautifully color the nest.
I really liked that. It was pretty.
But not anymore.
No matter how much I painted the inside of the cage red with blood, Mom never came looking for me.
And eating something while it was still bleeding didn’t taste good.
…The meat Mom used to make for me was really delicious.
Slurp…!
Just thinking about the old days made saliva slide down my throat.
But I didn’t feel hungry.
Even if I didn’t eat. Even if my body was damaged. Even if I couldn’t breathe.
No matter what happened to me…….
I could never die, because Mom had given me this immortal body.
Still, I want to eat something after so long. And I miss Mom too.
For me, eating was nothing more than play.
“Ptooey!”
The chunks of flesh and bone fragments rolling around in my mouth hit the floor.
Humans taste bad.
Worse than dairy cows.
And they were far too weak.
Which made them good for playing with sometimes, like this.
“Eugh… so soft there’s no chew to them.”
The downside was that their durability was so low they didn’t last long.
Boring. Dull. No fun.
I was tired of painting this white space red too.
No matter how much I decorated it, those damn humans would just clean it all up anyway.
Creeeak…!
Just then, the door on the opposite side began to open slowly.
The thick door that even my strength still couldn’t smash.
But something was strange.
Normally they blocked it off with a thick wall first and then cleaned… yet today the door leading straight outside was opening.
Should I just smash through there the moment the door opens?
It was a good idea.
Sitting around waiting here wouldn’t bring Mom. That much was obvious.
Going out to find her myself would be faster.
“…Crong!”
The instant the door opened I crouched my short legs, coiling power like a spring so I could launch myself out—
“Cro, hi?”
“Crong…?!”
The moment I confirmed the face of the human who had come inside, I had no choice but to stop.
I’ll talk to the people so they can get you out of here. It’ll be hard right away, but at least I’ll come visit sometimes so you won’t be bored, and we can play.
The first unusual human who understood my words and could speak the same language.
Yesterday he had promised to be my friend.
He had clearly come now to keep that promise.
“Y-you? What… what was your name again?”
“That’s disappointing. Did only I think we were friends?”
“C-Crong? Th-that’s not it! I just forgot for a second! Can’t you tell me one more time……?”
It was a pathetic excuse, but it was unexpected.
Honestly I hadn’t thought he would come back.
I had never met a good human before, so I couldn’t trust it.
“My name is Han-nam… ugh, it just slipped out. No. My name is Han-sung. Kang Han-sung.”
“Han-sung…?”
“Yeah. You got mad because of those uncles earlier, right?”
“It’s okay now. They’re all dead.”
“Ahaha, I see.”
“By the way, why’d you come back? To play with me?”
“Of course. And while we’re at it, I thought we could eat together too.”
The human named Han-sung clattered something in his hands and laid it out on the blood-soaked floor.
“Crorong? Cro hates dairy cows.”
“I know. That’s why I’m going to make something you’ll like.”
“…Y-you’re gonna make it?!”
“Yeah. You don’t like raw meat, right?”
“How do you know that……????”
“I don’t like eating it raw either.”
—Click click!
With those words, Han-sung sparked a flame from the square thing he had set on the floor.
He placed a black iron plate over that mysterious round blue flame, and then—
Sizzle…!!!
He laid raw meat with just the right mix of flesh and fat on top of it.
“Sniff sniff sniff…! G-good smell?!”
The bloody stench faded, and before I knew it a savory aroma filled the air.
A familiar, longed-for smell.
The smell of the well-grilled meat Mom used to make for me.
Gulp!
Without realizing it, drool started pouring down.
“Here, it’s done. Try one.”
Han-sung even cut the meat into easy-to-eat pieces and held it out to me himself.
“Kuuuh……?”
For some reason, his figure overlapped with Mom’s.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I-I want Han-sung to feed me.”
“Ah, right. Chopsticks would be a bit much with those hands. Open wide?”
“Uuung. Aaaaaah…….”
Hap!
The taste of the grilled meat that settled on my tongue was—
“Hic?!”
Heavenly.
So good that tears actually started flowing.
—Haa, again.
—I want to eat something cooked.
—I hate raw meat now.
Cro’s inner thoughts, delivered through mind reading.
Crorong? Cro hates dairy cows.
Through our conversation I confirmed that the mind reading was real.
Sizzle…!
I grilled some pork belly for her on a portable gas burner.
And the moment she stuffed a piece into her mouth—
“Hic…! Hic! Hauuut…!”
“C-Cro? Are you okay? Why all of a sudden……?”
She suddenly started shedding thick tears one after another.
Surely it wasn’t crocodile tears… right?
For a brief moment the anxiety rose that I was dealing with an anomaly rather than an ordinary little kid—but only for a moment.
“Croooooong……!”
“──?!?!”
With tears still in her eyes, Cro stretched out her short arms and threw herself at me.
“…Mommmmmmy! It’s Mom! Mom!”
She cried out something I couldn’t understand at all.