Became a Failed Experimental Subject-Chapter 59: Black Cat Strategy Guide

Day three of Electrice being in W-City.

Just like she’d confidently declared, she had fully recovered from her injuries.

Her flight jacket was neatly repaired, tank top fresh, special-fabric leggings snug, and she wore bulky sneakers.

Sitting on a desk with her legs crossed up, sparks crackled around Electrice in the strategy room.

“I’m gonna kill that damn cat on the spot, then use the rest of my time to find that bastard... I let him off last time. If I see him again, I’ll rip out a steel beam and—”

“Mind cooling your ability a bit?”

Electrice, grumbling quietly, whipped her head around at the voice of Starlight—Yu Anna.

“Hmph, why should I?”

“The other heroes are uncomfortable.”

“I’m preheating so I can bolt out any second. And if this much makes them uncomfortable, then they’re weak, right? Tell weaklings to shut it.”

Spotting Iron Might walking into the strategy room, Electrice snapped irritably.

“Hey! A-Class! Drinks! Go get some!”

“Go buy your own.”

“What kind of training are they giving recruits in W-City?”

Yu Anna sighed.

Electrice was the textbook definition of bullying the weak and sucking up to the strong.

Even as an S-Class hero, this was how she acted toward her peers.

The only small relief was that she didn’t act like this toward monsters.

Among heroes, though, there wasn’t a more exhausting S-Class hero than her.

And for the citizens of W-City... there wasn’t a hero more hated.

[Why the hell is that Electrice or whatever in W-City?]

[Never seen a hero with such garbage personality before.]

[She knocked me out with electricity and took my seat at a restaurant. I woke up and missed my lunch break.]

[My arm got shocked and I still can’t lift it right... at least the monster damage insurance came through.]

[Got hit by trash she dropped while flying overhead—does insurance cover that?]

She loved food, bounced around from restaurant to restaurant, always cutting lines.

Didn’t carry a wallet—just told people to bill the Hero HQ and disappeared.

If she felt citizens weren’t listening to her, she’d zap them unconscious.

[Is this how heroes act in A-City?]

[Even if she acts like that, it’s not like civilians can do anything. She’s S-Class.]

[Honestly, Starlight feels like a damn saint now.]

[Electrice electroshocked a guy for not greeting her “S-Class Hero-ness.” Is that what heroes do?]

More and more W-City citizens were turning against Electrice.

And some were even starting to compare her... to Black Cat.

[Why is every single thing Electrice does so punchable?]

[She’s a hero, and W-City’s cutest Black Cat is a monster? For real?]

[Is she even here to catch Black Cat? Why would you catch him?]

[Isn’t this just to prevent another rampage like that Bad Cats incident?]

[But he’s behaving again, so why poke the bear?]

[If Cage couldn’t catch him, how’s Electrice gonna do it?]

[Black Cat’s way better than Electrice. Can’t we just not catch him?]

Since word got out that Electrice was here to hunt Black Cat, people weren’t just defending him anymore—they were rooting for him.

[What if she fails to catch him and pisses him off again?]

[Is she here to increase monster damage in W-City? Is she a hero or a damn terrorist?]

[Honestly, would be great if she got smacked like Cage and left.]

[Just don’t kill her, but beat her within an inch of her life.]

[Go Black Cat~!]

It wasn’t just W-City citizens hoping for that outcome.

“I never thought I’d find myself wanting to root for the monster in a hero vs. monster fight.”

“Do you think Electrice can even match up to Black Cat?”

“Ma’am, are you really going to go through with this hunt? What about the meeting we just had?”

“...I don’t know either.”

Letting Black Cat be was something the W-City heroes had privately agreed on.

But with an S-Class hero sent from another city, they had no choice but to follow through.

There was no valid excuse not to.

Monsters are meant to be hunted.

Heroes exist to hunt them.

“Call it a hunch, but if she actually does catch Black Cat, things are gonna go back to being a huge pain, like before...”

“I know.”

Right now, W-City was practically riding a “Black Cat boom”—benefiting from his presence.

Taking him out now wouldn’t bring any gain.

If anything, W-City would lose its extra support and get overwhelmed again.

Not to mention the uproar from citizens who now supported him.

[Zone 6, Disaster-Class monster detected! Repeat, Zone 6, Disaster-Class monster detected! A-Class hero currently engaging to prevent civilian casualties!]

Just then, the broadcast alert every hero had been waiting for echoed through the base.

According to the plan, the A-Class hero was already holding the line to minimize damage.

And in every case like this so far—Black Cat had shown up late to help.

[Black Cat detected!]

“There he is!”

Electrice shot to her feet and—BOOM!—launched herself out the window in a thunderous arc.

CRASH! The shattered glass and lingering electricity in the room made the other heroes scowl.

Yu Anna shouted to those left in the strategy room before rushing after her.

“All personnel! Prepare for combat in case anything happens!”

After leaping out the broken window, Yu Anna accelerated.

But even pushing her speed to the limit, her Starlight form capped at just below the sound barrier.

Electrice, however, accelerated to max speed in zero seconds—supersonic movement.

In an instant, she could move like lightning itself.

The fastest hero alive.

[Electrice now engaged with Black Cat!]

“Evacuate the A-Class hero on site!”

Hearing Electrice had already arrived, Yu Anna pushed even faster.

By the time she arrived, Electrice was warming up with light jumps in place.

“You’re late. And you were supposedly on Cage’s level? Really?”

“Why are you comparing heroes like it’s a ranking?”

At least, Electrice hadn’t stupidly rushed in solo like Cage had.

The A-Class hero was evacuating, and behind them, Black Cat stood still, mid-meal, devouring the Disaster-Class monster.

He quietly stared at Electrice.

His ears perked straight up. Tail hung low.

Ever since the Bad Cats incident, he was much more wary.

Yu Anna winced, knowing she’d just lose his trust even more after this.

Just as that thought hit—Electrice smirked.

“That’s Black Cat? Seriously? That’s supposed to be Despair-class? He looks weak as hell.”

“Did you even read the report?”

“Hmph. You can get the gist by skimming it.”

Black Cat was a monster with a new ability called Stealth, which let him hide his ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) power completely.

The way he felt and his actual strength were completely different.

Does she really not know that? Yu Anna started feeling uneasy.

And then—Black Cat sank into the shadows.

At that moment, Electrice dispersed her electromagnetic field.

The monster detectors installed in every city were modeled after her tech.

She wasn’t just A-City’s sharpest spear—she was its most advanced monster radar.

“There!”

Steel beams ripped from a ruined building surged with electricity and stabbed into Black Cat’s shadow.

Just as he started sinking deeper into the ground, Yu Anna clenched her fist.

She didn’t want to punch—but she did.

The ground where he hid sank in.

A miss. But right behind her, Electrice stabbed another beam into his position.

Escape. Chase. Escape...

After three rounds of that, Black Cat stepped out of the shadow and stood atop the ruins.

Realizing escape wouldn’t work.

“Starlight, you seriously couldn’t catch something running that slow?”

Yu Anna thought maybe—just maybe—Cage was right.

With Electrice, they might really catch Black Cat.

If Electrice could just locate and block his escape, she’d be more than enough support.

It felt like she’d finally caught his tail—barely out of reach before.

Should she let go, or pull harder...?

Just as Yu Anna hesitated over the hunt’s possibility—

Electrice’s entire body lit up golden.

“That attack just now? That was just a hit, right? If that shook him up, he’s not even sturdy. Cage got wrecked by this? Lame.”

“Don’t get cocky.”

“Cocky? Pfft... Honestly? This is ridiculous. You guys struggled with this?”

Please, no—Yu Anna felt a sharp anxiety stab into her.

And then Electrice crouched down like a sprinter at the blocks.

“New plan: You back me up. I’ll show you what an actual S-Class from A-City looks like.”

“Hey, don’t—!”

Too late.

CRACK! Lightning smashed the ground.

Electrice’s signature technique—Raiden Surge—the same as Disaster-Class Thunderfang’s.

She converted her entire body into energy.

A lightning bolt named Electrice pierced straight through Black Cat.

BOOOOOOM! The delayed roar followed.

And at that moment, Black Cat’s body swelled with golden light.

White sigils etched across his black fur. His face grew angular, less feline.

Thunderfang—a Disaster-Class monster who used lightning—had his ability completely absorbed.

“Thunderfang’s trait...!”

“GRRRRRAAAAAGH!”

Then, Black Cat’s body became lightning.

BOOOOM, like thunder crashing overhead, he burst with light and lunged.

Electrice darted in zigzags through the air to dodge the blast radius.

“What the—he seriously transformed into Thunderfang?!”

RUMBLE—she hit the ground, landing steadily.

One knee down, one leg stretched, both hands touching the floor.

“Then...! Now’s my chance to attack!”

Crackle-crack! Electromagnetism drew in rubble, forming a massive concrete-and-steel fist.

Thunderfang’s weakness was exhaustion right after charging in lightning form.

CRASH! But Black Cat dodged with catlike grace.

Black Cat wasn’t Thunderfang.

Even inherited traits could be countered by other abilities.

“What the hell are you doing, Starlight?!”

Black Cat stood atop the concrete fist.

His jaws opened.

At the mouth, a high-output beam began to form—a laser cannon.

Electrice screamed in panic.

“Backup!”

“Tch!”

Yu Anna had no choice but to throw a punch.

BOOM! A pillar of flame filled with raw destructive power shot forward, and Black Cat shut his mouth and raised a flame storm like a barrier.

Flame ability and wind ability—he’d shown wind manipulation before, but after devouring Stormbird, his output had grown strong enough to blow apart even Yu Anna’s flames.

Bad Cats’ space manipulation, Lee Han-young’s drifting, traits, abilities—every ability Black Cat used belonged to something he had devoured.

Just as Yu Anna realized that one fact, Electrice pulled her arms free from the concrete rubble and brought her hands together.

Between her outstretched palms, a steel rod torn from the debris began spinning rapidly.

WUUUUUUNG. In the vibrating electromagnetic field, the molten rebar transformed into a beam and fired.

The technique that earned Electrice the title of A-City’s Sharpest Spear: Railgun.

And in its trajectory—Black Cat and the buildings...

“Wait—!”

What flashed through Yu Anna’s mind wasn’t Black Cat, but the damage to the buildings and civilians.

The railgun’s range far exceeded her own ability—if it went beyond the designated evacuation zone, it could hit civilians who hadn’t yet escaped.

A massive shockwave—her vision turned white as the railgun fired.

But the shot didn’t hit anything.

“This guy’s a real monster, huh? He actually reacted to that?”

Just for an instant, the air in front of them tore open in black—Black Cat swallowed the shot and opened up space again above his back.

Yu Anna exhaled in relief at the afterimage shooting up into the sky, then glared at Electrice.

“What the hell was that?!”

“What, why?”

“That attack! It could’ve reached beyond the designated zone! What if you’d—!”

“Property damage~? Hmph. If we were in A-City, Cage would’ve just blocked it all.”

And that was true—in A-City, Cage would have neutralized any collateral damage from Electrice’s abilities.

But in W-City, there was no hero capable of handling the aftermath of her power.

“This is W-City, don’t go shooting blindly! What if civilians got caught in that?!”

“Hah? What civilians? Don’t tell me—there are people who didn’t evacuate just because it’s a neighboring zone where a Despair-class monster is fighting a hero? No way to know where the monster’s going next, right?”

Using her ability again, Electrice pulled countless steel rods from the rubble.

“Idiots like that? Who cares if they die?”

“You—!”

“More importantly, I wanna know—why didn’t Black Cat dodge the railgun? Why block it?”

RUMBLE! Steel rods infused with electricity fired toward Black Cat like machine gun rounds.

The red-hot rebar bullets were strong enough to pierce deep into the ground.

At that moment, as steel spears rained down diagonally from the sky, Black Cat weaved through them—then came to a stop.

He’d tried dodging, but now returned to his spot and stood still, blocking the attacks head-on.

“Aha, I get it. That thing from the report, right?”

Black Cat now blocked the steel with multiple abilities instead of dodging, while Electrice bombarded him one-sidedly.

Yu Anna frowned at the unsettling sight.

“That’s weird. And you guys haven’t caught him until now? Hah, just how useless is W-City?”

Electrice boosted her output, and the rebar flew with power enough to punch through underground shelters.

Then Yu Anna heard the terrified cry of a child—shaken by the tremors.

The sound came from an underground shelter behind Black Cat.

The reason he wasn’t dodging—because he didn’t know how deep the rebar would go.

He was protecting them.

They were using the monster’s abnormal behavior—his instinct to protect humans—as leverage. Using humans as hostages.

“You insane bitch! Stop it already!”

Realizing what Electrice was doing, Yu Anna hurled a punch at her.

THOOOM! With a powerful blow, Electrice was blasted backward into a building.

CLATTER! The scattered steel rods fell as her disrupted ability dropped. From the concrete pile, Electrice pulled herself out and spat out a mouthful of blood.

“...Starlight, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What I’m doing? What you’re doing—do you really think this is what a hero’s supposed to do?!”

“If a few civilians have to die to take down a Despair-class, of course they should. That’s the least a useless civilian can do—a noble sacrifice.”

“‘Noble sacrifice’ my ass! You think anyone wants that?!”

The reason Yu Anna hated Electrice the most was her extreme superhuman supremacism.

Cage believed that leading the weak was the duty of the strong.

But Electrice believed that if the weak were useless to heroes, they could die for all she cared.

Better to kill more monsters than waste time caring about a few disobedient civilians.

Citizens who ignored a hero’s command weren’t citizens—they were potential villains.

If you could catch a monster by sacrificing a few powerless civilians, then sacrifice them.

Standing in front of that mindset again, Yu Anna exploded with fury.

“I’m filing a formal complaint to A-City. What you’re doing isn’t support—it’s terrorism.”

“I’m not the terrorist—you are. How long have you been sitting on this Despair-class monster when he could’ve been taken down so easily? What if he evolves into an Extermination-class? Can you handle that?”

Strictly speaking, Electrice might have a point.

Using a monster’s traits against them was a basic tactic.

Black Cat was dangerous, and even if people got hurt, maybe he should be taken down as soon as possible.

But the strategy Electrice was proposing—

It was too disgusting for Yu Anna to accept.

“Get lost! The operation’s canceled. W-City will handle Black Cat on its own!”

“Are you serious right now?”

Yu Anna raised her power and glared. Electrice saw that and frowned.

“Hah, fine. I don’t need your help anyway. I can take down Black Cat all by myself.”

If she could use civilians as hostages—his weakness—then sure.

That’s what was behind her words.

Unconsciously, Yu Anna wreathed both her arms in high-temperature flame.

“I said the hunt’s over. Stand down.”

“Oh? What, you worried a few civilians might get hurt while fighting a Despair-class?”

Electrice faced Yu Anna, electricity arcing across her entire body.

“It’s a monster. A Despair-class. Who cares if a few people die? Didn’t you just throw away like 500 people recently to catch one?”

“‘Throw away’...?”

“No wonder you can’t even catch one damn Despair-class. You see its weak point clear as day and don’t even go for it.”

“You... shut your mouth.”

“Ahhh, I get it now—the rumors are true. You’re one of those monster lovers, huh? You’re interfering ‘cause you don’t want that little kitty to die. Or is it just that you can’t stand me being a stronger S-Class than you and Cage?”

What the hell was she even saying?

Using civilians as bait to attack a monster—then acting like she’d done nothing wrong?

Yu Anna wasn’t just angry anymore. Her head was pounding.

Grrrrrr...

And then—Black Cat growled.

A monster who always chose escape over conflict.

If it were Black Cat, he’d have already run by now.

Yu Anna turned toward the sound—expecting him to be gone.

But right beside the steel-rain impact zone, in the shadow of a building—

Black Cat was still standing there.

Not running.

His expression just as furious as during the Bad Cats incident.