Became a Failed Experimental Subject Chapter 85

Ch.85 Dakgalbi was Delicious

If it were just about the food packs, I could understand that the lab needs to make money, so they might be selling inventions or something. But the fact that their scent lingers suggests there’s some kind of connection.  

However, the very fact that the scent is detectable implies their connection isn’t that deep.  

The researchers know they reek of chemicals, so they go to great lengths to wash off the smell.  

Probably to avoid being detected by the experimental subjects they’ve released in the city.  

Only sensitive monsters would be able to pick up on such a faint scent.  

It’s hard to believe Meister is so careless a researcher that she’d let me catch her scent.  

To be sure, I got closer, rubbing my head against her to sniff, and found out more.  

The source of the smell wasn’t Meister’s body—it was her bag.  

Inside the bag was something related to the lab.  

Beyond that, I couldn’t tell without opening it.  

Meister is under strict protection in District 0.  

To find out anything in this situation, I’d have to act too aggressively.  

Maybe I should wait for the moment she steps outside again…  

I left one cat behind and moved on.  

As I headed to another District to hunt more monsters, Sagugu appeared before me.  

“Mew? It’s brother!”  

I glanced around, but the only thing in sight was Sagugu.  

District 5… I landed on the rooftop in human form, grabbing Sagugu’s head as her cat ears popped out.  

Sagugu is still clumsy with humanization.  

It’s not good for her ears to show in places with humans.  

“Your ears are out.”  

“Ah! Mom’ll scold me! Thanks? I greet you!”  

Her sparkling eyes, full of expectation, made me feel like I understood something, so I praised her.  

“Good greeting.”  

“Sagugu is a good girl! When thankful, say thank you!”  

“Where’s Gu Seo-ryong?”  

“Mom’s washing up! I came out cause I’m hungry!”  

“Aaaah, seriously! Sagugu! How many times have I told you not to go out on your own—?!”  

Then, Gu Seo-ryong, in her monstrous form, landed heavily on the rooftop.  

Still with soap bubbles in her hair and only wrapped in a shower robe, Gu Seo-ryong covered her face in shock the moment she saw me.  

“Wh-what?! Deun-deun, what are you doing here? Were you wandering around hunting monsters again?”  

“Brother wanders every day! Eek!”  

“You, come here. Seriously, why do you keep trying to sneak out these days?”  

Gu Seo-ryong roughly shook her hair dry with the robe, bit her lip, then punched Sagugu’s head and grabbed her by the scruff.  

Just like that, Sagugu’s eyes fluttered shut as if she’d been anesthetized, going limp.    

“A drug?”  

“Huh? Not a drug, just… When you grab a cat by the scruff—Wait, hold on, sweetie, can I touch your neck for a sec?”  

“Don’t touch me.”  

“Aw, just once, okay? Ow.”  

I flicked away the approaching hand with a punch, and Gu Seo-ryong’s wrist bent unnaturally.  

“You’ve gotten stronger. Was it from eating the parasitic monster’s core?”  

“It wasn’t a monster. It was an experimental subject.”  

“…What?”  

When I casually mentioned the true nature of the creature that had taken root in D-City, Gu Seo-ryong’s face twisted sharply.  

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Can you explain in detail? Sweetie?”  

“Hmm… Fine.”  

At Gu Seo-ryong’s serious tone, I sat on the rooftop and recounted what happened in D-City.  

The numbering—Subject Number 3, the creature’s traits, the strange things it had said.  

“The goal of the monsterization experiments…”  

“Do you know it?”  

“I always thought their goal was to create monsters that obeyed them to use as weapons. But based on what Number 3 said, that doesn’t seem to be the case. It clearly implied it had nearly achieved its own goal, didn’t it?”  

“Correct.”  

“Number 3 had completely taken over D-City, yet it didn’t absorb the humans, leaving them as infected… Could their goal be coexistence between monsters and humans?”  

“The infected are not human.”  

“Right, but the fact that they deliberately maintained human forms means they wanted to remain human.”  

“Hmm…”  

Wanting to be human, maintaining human forms.  

As I quietly watched, feeling something odd, Gu Seo-ryong clicked her tongue habitually.  

“No matter how I think about it, it’s weird. Monsters can’t coexist with humans. The lab must know that. They can communicate with monsters, too, right? Even if they’re heavily drugged.”  

“If they knew about a monster’s instincts, they wouldn’t entertain ideas like coexistence.”  

“The fact that Number 3 was outside the lab is also a problem. The lab releases failed experiments outside to gather data, right? Meaning Number 3 was a failure. Given the numbering, the ‘goal’ must be… The lab’s original objective? Tch… If I’d known D-City had an experimental subject, I’d have gone myself.”  

“Have you been looking into the lab?”  

“Of course? You haven’t? Don’t tell me you’re not interested?”  

At my question, Gu Seo-ryong jerked her head up and answered.  

“Don’t you even want revenge? They dragged you from an orphanage and turned you into a monster.”  

Revenge. Was that why Gu Seo-ryong built her nest, growing her power among humans?  

“Revenge…”  

The old me would’ve only felt emptiness at that word.  

Finding them is nearly impossible.  

Even if I did, what I’d face wouldn’t be them—just more experimental subjects.  

“I don’t plan to chase after them just for that.”  

“Why?”  

“Even if I hunted them down, all I’d face are experimental subjects. They hide thoroughly, leaving no scent.”  

To find them, I’d have to tear the city apart—and what about the casualties that would cause?  

If they appeared before me, I’d tear them apart, but the human cost of fighting those monsters…  

Unless I struck at the head, it’d just be an endless cycle of expendable subjects.  

“I’m still not strong enough to take them down. At the very least, I’d need to reach Annihilation-class.”  

“That damn Annihilation-class—is it even possible? The lab itself said they couldn’t create anything beyond Despair-class.”  

“Accumulating that much despair and terror would be hard inside the lab.”  

“What do you mean by that?”  

“Doesn’t your core tell you? That it lacks the despair and terror of devoured humans.”  

“Huh?”  

Her reaction suggested she’d never heard of it. There was a clear gap in our knowledge.  

Maybe Gu Seo-ryong just hadn’t reached that level yet.  

I looked at her pityingly.  

“You’re weak. So weak your core doesn’t even speak to you.”  

“No, it’s not that I’m weak—you’re the weird one here! The core speaking? What are you talking about? Treating it like some separate entity…”  

“It’s not literal speech. It’s a sensation through the core—”  

“That’s exactly what’s weird. What kind of metaphor is this?”  

“Brother weird? Core is core, no talk?”  

Maybe I’m the strange one?  

No way. I’m the stronger one.  

These barely Despair-class weaklings must be wrong.  

“You’re weak, Sagugu.”  

“Mew!”  

“Enough. Maybe monsters just have different senses. Let’s drop the confusing talk. The important thing is… If you leave for the lab alone while you try to reach Annihilation-class, they’ll grow stronger too.”  

“Hmm.”  

Monsters grow stronger the longer they’re left alive.  

The same rule applies to the Monster Lab.  

The enemy won’t wait for us to grow.  

If you want to kill them, you have to push yourself and do it fast.  

I learned that by eliminating many monsters early and killing the parasitic one.  

“You’re right. To kill them, we have to find and eliminate them quickly.”  

“Hunting them down will naturally get you to Annihilation-class. So? If you’re up for revenge, wanna team up? Since you’re the reason I lost all the villains I was using to track the lab in an instant, how about taking some responsibility?”  

“Was that what Guryongseong was for?”  

“Not just that, but basically, yeah.”  

“All I saw was a human mating ground.”  

“Mating?!”  

“Could you watch your language in front of the kid? Also, a group’s original purpose tends to warp as it grows, you know?”  

Is that so? I don’t really get it.  

I’ve never formed a pack, so Gu Seo-ryong, who’s built a nest, must be right.  

“In that case, we’ll need to investigate the lab.”  

“Right, digging up deeply hidden info isn’t easy, and even for me, it’s dangerous. But with you and Sagugu, I can be more aggressive—”  

“Meister seems connected to the lab.”  

“What?”  

“I’ll need to look into it more, but there’s definitely a link. The food packs Meister gave me were the same as the ones the lab used. And the scent from her bag—”  

“Sweetie? How do you even know that? Meister? Don’t tell me it’s the Meister I’m thinking of?”  

“It is.”  

“Explain. What’s going on?”  

To the flustered Gu Seo-ryong, I explained about Meister.  

How Starlight suddenly brought her, how she fed me delicious dakgalbi, and how there was a scent.  

She probably isn’t a researcher, but when I mentioned the lab’s scent, Gu Seo-ryong clutched her head, dizzy.  

“Meister… Right, that once-in-a-generation genius. It’d be weirder if she weren’t involved in those insane experiments… But she’s the hero among heroes, isn’t she? Maybe the info was manipulated…”  

“What’s dakgalbi?”  

“A very delicious food.”  

“Very delicious? More delicious than just delicious?”  

“Hmm, do you know about this thing called Churu?”  

“Churu? Cute name!”  

As Gu Seo-ryong muttered to herself, I told Sagugu about the delicious food I’d eaten.  

Recalling the taste, emotions leaked from me, and Sagugu’s mouth was already drooling.  

“Churu is also very delicious. What Meister gave me was Churu dakgalbi.”  

“Very delicious is very delicious?!”  

“Shut up! You damn cats! I’m trying to think here!”  

“We’re talking about dakgalbi. You’re the noisy one, Gu Seo-ryong.”  

“Yeah! Mom noisy!”  

Gu Seo-ryong scowled and retreated to the corner of the rooftop, while I told Sagugu more about Churu dakgalbi.  

A short while later, Gu Seo-ryong returned, having finished her brooding.  

“Alright, let’s kill Meister.”  

“How did you reach that conclusion?”  

“She’s in W-City right now, right? The fact that she came without any notice means it’s a secret visit. Perfect opportunity, isn’t it? Kill her and see how the lab reacts.”  

Still thinking like a monster—Gu Seo-ryong only sees humans as food or tools.  

“Why jump to killing instead of gathering intel?”  

“Because she’s dangerous? She’s Meister, a once-in-a-generation genius. A hero like her wouldn’t be some low-ranking lab grunt. At the very least, she’s one of the lab’s key figures.”  

“I disagree.”  

“Why? If we don’t kill her now, she’ll definitely become a threat later. She’s the freak who fought monsters to protect humans.”  

“The one I saw was very different.”  

The Meister I saw was passive, fearful, full of regret, terror, hollow emptiness, and tears.  

The complete opposite of what I sense from researchers.  

Someone that weak couldn’t possibly fight monsters.  

Even if she had in the past, she’s just a spent husk now.  

“Dakgalbi is Meister? No kill dakgalbi!”  

“I agree with Sagugu. We shouldn’t kill dakgalbi.”  

“You two aren’t just opposing me because you want dakgalbi, are you?”  

“Yes!”  

“No.”  

I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth.