Became a Failed Experimental Subject-Chapter 21: That’s Strange

[But what if Black Cat gets pissed about this and starts attacking people from now on? Wouldn’t that be the end of W-City?]

Yu Anna, still scrolling through the online community, sighed when she saw a post that mirrored her exact fears.

Recently, she’d come to admit—even publicly—that Black Cat had been going out of his way not to attack people.

And that was exactly what she was most afraid of.

Up until now, all she’s ever done was fail to catch him.

So what happens if Black Cat really does start rampaging?

If he stops acting weird and just turns fully hostile toward humanity—if he really goes berserk—W-City is finished.

Chasing after him today while he destroyed building after building, she had felt that truth more painfully than ever.

“God... these assholes really don’t have a clue what they’re doing...”

If Black Cat were to fight Yu Anna head-on—if they actually went all out trying to kill each other—then Yu Anna would win.

Or, if she stopped holding back and unleashed her full powers, destroying the city in the process—if she chased him down and just blew up entire areas to root him out—then yeah, she could take him down.

If they gave up on W-City entirely, she could kill Black Cat.

But that would have to be the last resort. The move they make only if he really starts to go wild.

Right now, Black Cat was—if anything—something you'd have to call a proto-hero, an anomalous monster who was helping heroes and the entire city.

That’s why this fragile peace had held so far. So why the hell were third parties showing up to provoke him?

If they’re not even capable of catching him, then what the hell is the point? If they really want to try, they should at least send ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ an S-Class hero.

Not that that’s ever going to happen.

S-Class heroes are the ultimate weapons each city holds in reserve.

In pre-monster era terms, they’re basically like mobile nukes a city owns.

There isn’t a single city today that’d casually send out its own nuclear option to another city.

Unless something truly massive—a real Extinction-Class threat—were to appear...

Sometimes, if a particularly powerful Despair-Class is at risk of becoming an Extinction-Class threat, S-Class support will be dispatched. But Black Cat is a unique case—he doesn’t attack humans easily.

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Some major cities have two or three S-Class heroes, so technically they could spare one.

But Black Cat’s threat level is extremely low for a Despair-Class. Sending an S-Class just to catch him would be idiotic.

So as long as outsiders stop poking the bear, this lull should continue.

At least, that’s what Yu Anna was thinking... until she came across a truly stupid post.

[A-City’s S-Class Hero, Cage, announces he’s coming to W-City to capture Black Cat.]

“...Huh?”

What the hell kind of joke was that?

Was it just another delusional post from some forum user?

But then more and more posts with the same headline started popping up.

And a few minutes later, the news picked it up—with an actual interview.

S-Class Hero Cage, in the flesh.

[To the citizens of W-City who are living in fear of monster attacks: Please rest assured. I, Cage, have made up my mind to eliminate the monster that threatens your safety—Black Cat.]

Watching the interview, with Cage’s golden hair and smiling face on the TV, Yu Anna’s expression soured.

She had a bad feeling W-City was about to get a lot more annoying.

****

A few days after the day S-Class Hero Cage of A-City publicly declared he would hunt Black Cat, he arrived in W-City—just as promised, bringing a squad of subordinate heroes with him.

Cameras flashed nonstop the moment he stepped off the train. The crowd welcoming him was huge.

Most people had never seen an A-City S-Class hero in person before—they were losing their minds.

“Whoa! Iron Fortress! Iron Fortress!”

“Cage-nim! Please look this way!”

Cage, smiling politely and waving to the crowd, shook hands with Starlight in front of the cameras and climbed into a limousine that had come to pick them up.

Inside the car, Yu Anna plopped into her seat, crossed her legs, and sat in silence next to two of Cage’s aides.

Cage, now out of the cameras’ view, dropped his public smile and spoke with a cold voice.

“So W-City’s full of squealing piglets, huh? Oink oink. What a disgrace, no poise whatsoever compared to A-City. Just noisy trash.”

“Click.”

Yu Anna clicked her tongue, openly scowling.

Yep—he was still the same. As expected.

Despite his public image, Cage was like this.

An extreme esper supremacist, a man whose power was only matched by his superiority complex.

“It’s been a while, Yu Anna. Or should I call you ‘Starlight’ now?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while, Jeong Hoyoung.”

Cage—Jeong Hoyoung—gave her body a slow once-over, then snapped his fingers toward the woman sitting beside him.

She took out a cigarette and placed it between his lips, and the woman on the other side lit it.

Smoking wasn’t allowed in the car, but Yu Anna didn’t bother telling him that. Cage wasn’t the type to listen anyway. She just grimaced and cracked the window.

“I heard you defeated Mirage. I thought you might’ve gotten stronger... but I guess not. Did you just catch it when it was already exhausted from fighting another Despair-Class? How cowardly.”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

Yu Anna genuinely couldn’t understand how pitting two Despair-Class monsters against each other before stepping in to finish one off was somehow cowardly.

Especially since that tactic had been invented by Cage himself.

He was the one who used his “Iron Fortress” to trap two monsters, then killed the one that survived.

What was even going on in that guy’s head?

“It does matter. You let people believe you killed it with your own strength—without telling them what really happened.”

Yu Anna’s face twisted even further at his accusatory tone.

“Thanks to that, now people in A-City are saying annoying bullshit. Like, maybe Cage isn’t stronger than Starlight.”

“...You didn’t seriously come to W-City because of that childish shit, did you?”

“From the beginning, I never liked the fact that you were given the same ‘Upper Mid’ S-Class rating as me. You, who couldn’t even move against me during the exam.”

“...Unbelievable.”

He wasn’t wrong, though. During the hero certification exam, Yu Anna had been completely shut down by Cage.

He had a defense-specialized ability. Yu Anna’s powers were built for offense and pursuit.

His strategy of trapping opponents and slowly grinding them down was her natural counter.

No matter how hard she attacked, she couldn’t break through his defenses.

But when it came to fighting monsters, their records were identical.

Because human-vs-human combat and human-vs-monster combat were two entirely different things.

That’s why they were rated equally in the first place.

And now he was throwing a tantrum over it?

“I’ve heard that you still haven’t managed to catch the Despair-Class in W-City. If I’m the one who brings it down, then everyone will know, without a doubt, who’s superior.”

“Capturing monsters isn’t some pissing contest.”

“Oh, of course. It’s all for the comfort of the maladjusted masses, right?”

“Try not to spew hate speech while you’re at it.”

“Oops. Should I have called them ‘rejects’ instead? Failures? The defeated, the unchosen sheep who must be guided by the superhuman elite?”

“Sigh...”

Yu Anna shut down completely at the extreme display of esper superiority.

In this post-monster era, where superpowers were a reality, there were more than a few espers like Cage.

Some of them refused to take orders from regular humans at all, turning into villains and living only for their desires.

Cage wasn’t quite a villain, but his overwhelming sense of superiority kept him just inside the hero line.

To him, the superior must lead the inferior. A twisted form of heroism. A need to always embody the ideal, enviable image.

Because of that, Yu Anna couldn’t openly criticize Cage—not as long as he kept reducing casualties and doing his job.

Even if non-awakened civilians insulted him, Cage would just brush it off, saying the weak always bark.

But being compared to another esper? That, he couldn’t stand.

“I’ve read everything there is to know about this ‘Black Cat.’ With those pathetic abilities, there’s no way it can escape my Iron Fortress.”

Cage grinned confidently and clenched his fist.

When he opened it again, a floating cube materialized above his palm.

“A perfect opportunity, isn’t it? To prove that I’m superior to you.”

“Oh, sure. Whatever you say...”

Yu Anna waved a hand dismissively and stared out the window.

What was done was done. Cage had arrived—and that meant he was going to confront Black Cat.

The only question was whether Cage could actually catch him.

One thing was certain.

Black Cat wouldn’t be able to escape from Cage.

Even if they fought, Cage’s powers would minimize the damage.

Black Cat was a monster. An enemy of mankind. A target for heroes to eliminate.

“...Haa.”

Yu Anna sighed.

Once Black Cat was hunted down, her schedule would go back to being hectic.

It was the kind of thought a hero shouldn’t have—but still, she felt it.

Just a little bit of regret.

That Black Cat might actually get caught.

****

I was lifting a vending machine to grab a coin that had fallen into the gap when a distant sound made me set it back down.

A monster alert blaring from quite a distance away—the screeching of sirens echoed through the air.

Judging from the sound, it was probably Murder-Class again... well, a hero will show up and take care of it like always.

There were two S-Class heroes stationed in W-City right now, so there was no real reason for me to step in.

Lately, I’d been ignoring most of the monster alerts anyway, mostly because of all the stress from heroes constantly trying to capture me.

On top of that, I’d recently found out from the news that an S-Class hero named Cage from A-City had come here to W-City just to catch me.

With two S-Class heroes around, they could take care of things just fine on their own.

If both of them decided to come after me at once, even I probably wouldn’t be able to escape—so why bother throwing myself into danger?

So yeah, I ignored it. Monsters were hero business now.

But the more I ignored it, the more often the monster alerts went off.

More accurately—the alerts were staying active for way too long.

By now, they should’ve taken care of the monsters and shut off the alarms, but the sirens were still wailing.

It didn’t seem like Yu Anna had shown up. Maybe the heroes were busy?

I wasn’t hunting monsters, and maybe Yu Anna was holding position for some kind of plan with the other S-Class.

Then more time passed—and I started hearing sirens from all over W-City.

This time, I could even feel the ultra-low frequency hum of monster resonance—something strong had appeared.

I could sense multiple monster presences all over the place.

At least three Disaster-Class.

Having three of those show up at the same time? That was extremely rare.

Still... I’d been off the radar for a while, staying out of sight after hunting so many other monsters—maybe the Disaster-Class ones thought this territory was undefended.

Maybe to them, this place felt like a domain whose master had gone missing.

With things at this level, an S-Class hero should’ve shown up already... but the monster signatures weren’t stopping.

“...What the hell are they doing?”