[But if Black Cat gets mad about this and starts attacking people from now on, what will we do? Will W City get wrecked?]
While monitoring the community, Yuanna sighed after seeing a post reflecting her own worries.
Lately, the fact that Black Cat avoids attacking people was a concern that Yuanna, who acknowledges this, has been harboring.
So far, Yuanna has continuously missed catching Black Cat.
If Black Cat truly starts going berserk, what could they possibly do about it?
If Black Cat stops the strange behavior, completely turns hostile against humans, and genuinely goes on a rampage, W City will be finished.
Today, while chasing Black Cat, who was destroying numerous buildings, she felt this reality more painfully than ever.
“Aah… seriously, they don’t even know what they’re doing…”
If Black Cat were to fight Yuanna head-on, and they charged at each other with lethal intent, the winner would be Yuanna.
Or, if Yuanna were to unleash her powers completely without restraint and destroy the entire city while fighting, if she were to obliterate the entire area wherever Black Cat hides… she’d have confidence in catching it then.
If she were to sacrifice all of W City, she could eliminate Black Cat.
However, at this point, that remains a last resort, a choice to make if Black Cat starts rampaging.
Black Cat, in a sense, is a rather helpful monster to both heroes and the entirety of W City, deserving to be called a potential hero.
This is why the situation is at a standstill, and she wonders why third parties keep provoking Black Cat.
If they can’t catch it and are truly trying, then they should send an S-Class Hero.
Though, that would never happen.
An S-Class Hero is essentially the ultimate weapon deployed to each city.
Using the pre-monster age as an example, they are akin to a movable nuclear bomb that a single city possesses.
In this current age, no city would recklessly disclose its means of protecting against monsters.
Unless an extremely powerful monster, or a Cataclysm-grade, appears… or only in rare cases, if a Despair-grade monster needs to be eliminated before it reaches Cataclysm-grade, the S-Class hero might be called in for support. But Black Cat is a unique entity that rarely attacks humans.
Even in some large cities where there are two or three S-Class Heroes, sending one would still be excessive for something as low-risk as Black Cat, especially for a Despair-grade like it. Sending an S-Class hero to catch it would be a foolish move.
For now, as long as troublemakers from other cities don’t provoke Black Cat, this fragile peace might continue.
Yuanna thought this as she scanned the community’s reactions and frowned upon stumbling upon a foolish post.
[A City’s S-Class Hero, Cage, announces plans to come to W City in support to capture Black Cat.]
“…Huh?”
This must be some ridiculous joke, right? Are community users writing another strange fantasy story?
However, more and more posts with the same content started flooding in.
Soon enough, the same story appeared on the news.
Along with an interview from the S-Class Hero Cage himself.
[To the citizens of W City, who are trembling under monster attacks, please rest assured. The monster Black Cat that threatens your safety, I, Cage, have decided to eliminate it.]
Yuanna grimaced upon hearing the interview content from the handsome blonde in the TV, Cage, smiling confidently.
It seemed that W City was about to get involved in more annoying matters.
#
A few days after the announcement by A City’s S-Class Hero, Cage, that he would hunt Black Cat.
As promised, Cage arrived in W City accompanied by his team of heroes by train.
Numerous camera flashes went off the moment they disembarked, and crowds warmly welcomed Cage. People were highly excited to see A City’s renowned S-Class Hero up close.
“Wow! Citadel! Citadel!”
“Mr. Cage, look this way!”
Maintaining his gentlemanly demeanor, Cage waved and shook hands with Starlight, who greeted him on behalf of W City. Then, they boarded a limousine.
Inside the car, Yuna slouched into her seat and crossed her legs, seated alongside Cage and his two aides.
Seeing her posture, Cage wiped the smile off his face, revealing a voice and demeanor far different from his camera-ready persona.
“Do all the citizens of W City consist of dumb piglets? Compared to A City, lacking in decorum and incredibly noisy.”
“Tsk.”
Well, naturally, but still… Yuanna openly showed her displeasure, her tongue clicking.
As it turned out, this is what Cage was really like, in contrast to his public persona.
An extreme superior of abilities, Cage was a man firmly bound by a strong sense of superiority equal to the immense power of his abilities.
“It’s been a long time, Yuna. You’re the one called Starlight now, right?”
“That’s right. Long time no see, Ho-Young.”
Cage looked her up and down before snapping his fingers at the female aide sitting beside him.
She retrieved a cigarette from her pocket and placed it in Cage’s mouth, while the other female aide lit it for him.
Knowing that Cage wouldn’t respect rules like no smoking in the car, Yuanna frowned and opened the window.
“I heard you became stronger since you exterminated Mirage, but it seems not much has changed… did you really just take out a monster weakened by battling another monster? How cowardly.”
“What does that matter?”
Why taking down two Despair-grade monsters and catching the survivor should be considered cowardly was something Yuanna genuinely couldn’t understand. Furthermore, it was a strategy originally devised by Cage himself.
“Certainly does matter, because you didn’t reveal the truth to the public; instead, you made it look like you did it all on your own strength.”
With that explanation, Yuanna’s expression turned even more sour.
“Because of you, people from A City have been saying some very bothersome things, haven’t they? That I, Cage, am weaker than Starlight.”
“You’re not seriously here just for some childish game of comparison?”
“From the start, the fact that you were evaluated on par with me as an upper-tier S-Class didn’t sit well with me. Someone who couldn’t move at all against me during testing.”
“Seriously, you’ve got nothing better to say.”
It was true, as Cage had pointed out; Yuanna had suffered a catastrophic defeat in her hero exam against Cage.
Cage’s ability specialized in defense, whereas Yuanna’s in attack and pursuit.
His battle style involved gradually reducing his target by trapping it in tight spaces, which was Yuanna’s direct antithesis. Moreover, trying to break through Cage’s defenses was virtually impossible.
However, against monsters, both Cage and Yuanna achieved similar results.
Of course, human versus human combat differs vastly from monster versus human.
If the evaluation placed them at the same level, why was Cage so unsatisfied?
“I’ve heard about it, that W City hasn’t been able to capture that Despair-grade monster yet… If I capture it, everyone will clearly understand who’s the superior between the two of us.”
“Capturing a monster isn’t for boasting about who’s better at their job.”
“Of course, I know that much. That it’s for improving the environment for non-awakened individuals.”
“Could you at least refrain from hate speech?”
“Perhaps calling them failing candidates is more appropriate? Culls? The pitiful losers who aren’t chosen, the sheep that must follow the superior?”
“Sigh.”
Yuanna was annoyed by the severe speech from the power-superiority-oriented Cage.
In this current era, with monsters appearing and abilities manifesting, there were quite a number of ability users similar to Cage who spoke the same way.
Among them existed those who, considering it strange for an ability user to follow ordinary human commands, became villains serving their own desires.
On the other hand, Cage’s thought process was so close to villainous, yet his unique overwhelming superiority made him behave as a hero.
The iron-willed belief that the superior must guide the inferior, and that they must always present the image, the enviable appearance that others desire to see—ironically, his pride.
So Yuanna couldn’t say much even though Cage acted as the perfect hero on the outside. Despite enduring insults from non-awakened individuals with a broad-minded attitude—“after all, inferior people say inferior things”—it seemed he couldn’t stand being compared with other ability users.
“I’ve already read all the information on this thing called Black Cat. That level of power won’t help it escape my Citadel.”
With an overconfident expression, Cage clenched his fist.
In the palm of his hand, when he opened it, floated a square-shaped cube.
“What a great opportunity, to prove I’m superior to you.”
“Ah, sure… do as you please…”
Yuanna didn’t particularly care about any of it, flicking her hand dismissively and gazing out the window. Given he was already here, it was a fact that Cage would confront Black Cat.
Could he, Cage, really capture Black Cat? One thing was for certain.
Black Cat wouldn’t be able to escape from Cage.
Though Cage would face Black Cat, his ability would minimize collateral damage.
Black Cat, the monster… the enemy of humanity that the hero must eliminate.
“Sigh…”
Yuanna sighed, thinking that once Black Cat was hunted down, she would have her hands full again.
As a hero, she shouldn’t have, but she felt a slight tinge of regret.
That Black Cat would be caught.
#
I was trying to retrieve coins that had fallen through the coin slot of a vending machine when I heard a distant sound and lowered the machine.
The monster alarm, ringing from quite far away, with loud sirens.
Probably another Killer-grade this time… some hero will deal with it appropriately.
Since there are now two S-Class Heroes in W City, there’s no need for me to move.
Lately, stressed due to the continuous attempts by heroes to capture me, I’ve been mostly ignoring the monster alarms.
Additionally, news informed that an S-Class Hero named “Cage” from A City has come to W City to capture me.
If having two S-Class Heroes will handle everything and both jump into action, it’s likely I won’t be able to escape either. Is there any need to put myself in danger by jumping in?
Thus, I ignored it—monsters are the heroes’ job.
The more I ignored, the more monster alarms rang.
More accurately, the alarms kept going off for too long. It must have been long past the time needed to k*ll the monsters, yet the alarms didn’t stop.
It doesn’t seem like Yuanna is coming, are the heroes busy with something?
I’m not hunting monsters either, and it seems like Yuanna is waiting for something with the other S-Class Hero.
As time passed, alarm sounds came in from various places in W City.
This time, I could even sense the powerful infrasound of the monsters. It seems that a very powerful monster has appeared.
Sensing the presence of monsters all over the place—it feels like about three Calamity-grade monsters.
It’s extremely rare for three Calamity-grades to appear at once, but maybe because I’ve been hunting other monsters and hiding since, the current area feels like an unoccupied territory to Calamity-grade monsters.
At this point, an S-Class Hero should appear… But the presence of monsters doesn’t seem to be stopping.
“…What’s going on?”
—
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