This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 502

Once a promising Candidate for the Hero Association, drawing attention from not only the Guinea Hero Association but also the main headquarters in France, Riruka Shaki, designated as an A-Rank Villain by the Association, found herself being chased instead of wooed due to a single moment of carelessness. Despite it all, she had always prided herself on being quite lucky.

Of course, when her once-private hobby was exposed and she became a target for the Association, it felt as if the sky were crashing down on her. But, the foolish agents of the Association couldn’t find her!

An achievement that even the soaring Heroes couldn’t accomplish was made possible by none other than her unique Talent.

Her Talent allowed her to turn not just her body, but also any objects she touched, completely invisible.

Making full use of her abilities, which had once made her a subject of interest for the Association headquarters, she successfully escaped to France and subsequently settled in the Middle East, where the Association‘s influence was weaker. Right after that, she began to rise rapidly in power.

However, her happiness was short-lived… The reason was simple.

The French Hero Association, with its towering pride, didn’t forget someone who had dared to outsmart them and was merely waiting for the opportunity to strike back.

And so, at the moment when the French Hero Association finally began to move, Shaki, who was preparing to flee once more, encountered the ‘Another’—a being that looked human and spoke human language.

When she first crossed paths with this entity, she thought it was merely drawing a hidden sword that the French Hero Association had concealed from everyone.

At the time, it was easy to believe so because this Another had the appearance of a beautiful girl among humans, speaking human language fluently.

She couldn’t fathom that such a creature could exist.

Ignoring the Another‘s claim of coming to talk, she rushed at it, believing there was no other way to escape.

Only to find out… “It” was strong.

Ordinary people—and even Heroes with physical enhancement abilities—would have already collapsed and died from the injuries inflicted, and yet, it stood there without batting an eye.

Thus, in a fit of despair, she responded to the conversation only to find herself being offered refuge by not a human, but an Another.

The girl—or rather, “it”—invited her to the world of the Anothers, even offering her the ability to come and go as she pleased between reality and the Another world.

Of course, no free lunch in this world; in exchange, she had to find someone in the real world.

To be honest, that condition didn’t quite register at the time because her excitement stemmed from the thought that she could freely manipulate the Rift, which she previously thought was exclusive to the Anothers.

“If I had known the Another ones would pull such a stunt, I wouldn’t have accepted their proposal…”

Perhaps, out of disdain for humans who just take without paying their dues, the alliance between humans and Anothers—which was predetermined to fail from the start—fell apart due to the sudden betrayal of the Another ones.

Or maybe saying that the alliance crumbled due to the betrayal of the Another ones is misleading. After all, the ones who first ignored the demands of the Another were, precisely, the humans.

Anyway, the Another ones, having called together those they had a pact with under the guise of having something to say, began to shoot unknown venom at them through a bizarre entity they had never seen before…

Those struck by the venom writhed in agony for a long while and ultimately transformed into monsters, creatures that seemed to blend human and Another traits.

Unlike the others, Shaki, present at the scene, managed to evade the Another’s ambush thanks to her early use of her Talent to hide her body.

Though she successfully slipped away among the grotesque-looking monsters, her hardships were far from over.

It seemed that the rarity of her Talent caught the eye of the Another ones, for before long, they began searching for her…

Yet, she continued to shake off their pursuit, rendering her body invisible and hiding amid the heaps of debris wherever she could.

However, there was a limit to that method, and she began to suspect she was reaching it when pain from the Talent Organ started to rise.

Little did she expect to encounter people at that very moment.

Honestly, just that fact alone was enough to astound her, but even more surprising was that the humans who found her had managed to establish a base here. Not just any shabby structure, but a strongly built fortress.

And that wasn’t all!

Automated turrets lined the walls surrounding the base, reminiscent of those seen in military establishments. As they apparently installed sensors, the moment she approached, every turret turned toward her… and the sight sent chills down her spine.

With such defenses, wouldn’t it be easy to fend off a horde of Anothers?

So, she reasoned.

“I must be incredibly lucky,” she thought.

Frankly, it was already becoming too much, yet here she was meeting these humans.

From their reactions, they appeared unaware of her true identity.

So if not luck, then what was it?

“By the way…”

They looked East Asian at a glance, but which country did they hail from?

For starters, they didn’t seem Chinese or Japanese. They weren’t loud like the Chinese she’d encountered throughout her life, and the language wasn’t Japanese either.

If not those two, where could they be from?

India? Or perhaps Southeast Asian girls?

Regardless, since the opposition remained clueless about her identity, she thought it unnecessary to hint at who she was. Thus, she utilized her Arabic, learned during her time in the Middle East, to seek their help.

Out of caution, she also fabricated a story for how she ended up here.

To be honest, when they all displayed expressions of confusion, she thought her strategy had worked well…

But then, an unexpected variable arose in the form of a remarkably young girl, supposedly of a high rank within this enigmatic group, pulling out a Mobile Phone from her pocket.

Click—

Why on earth was she taking pictures of others’ faces?

Unless it was a basic internal feature, what use did a Mobile Phone have when all other functions were rendered useless?

“Could it be…?”

Could it connect to the real world…?

In that moment, a dark thought crept into her mind, even as she shook her head in disbelief. But even after experiencing the same behavior over and over, she couldn’t shake off the ominous feeling crawling up her body.

After all, the sights before her were already far from ordinary.

Was it so strange to ponder the possibility that she could communicate with the real world? What if she was indeed photographing her face to request an identity check at the Association?

Suddenly, this hypothesis swirled in her mind, and she realized it was not the time to be leisurely tied up.

And so, she began to struggle.

Fortunately, it seemed they weren’t paying her much attention.

It was as if they figured it wasn’t worth the trouble to re-capture her if she broke free from her restraints.

Thanks to their attitude, she felt assured.

If she could just manage to undo the bindings around her wrists, she could escape.

First, if she freed herself from the bindings, while they were in a state of confusion, she could use her Talent to become invisible. That would plunge them further into chaos… And if she found the passage connecting this dreadful world to reality during their fluster, escaping back into the real world wouldn’t be impossible.

With such thoughts in mind, she successfully pulled one arm free from the ties binding her wrists.

Cluck—

The sound of a tongue clicking resonated in her ear, followed by—

“Hup…!”

Out of nowhere, ice sprang up and ensnared her ankles.