Chapter 29: “Monsters, Magic, and Madness: The Black Zone Crisis”

I couldn’t believe what the bear said, but I grabbed my mask, kicked open the front door, and dashed outside.

Faced with an unbelievable reality, I lashed out irritably at the only thing around I could vent on.

“Speak clearly! Is it really three? Three of them?!”

“I swear it’s true! Have I ever lied to you about stuff like this? Oh no, it’s going up again!”

As much as I wanted to deny it, it was real.

No matter how useless this bear could be, when it came to monsters, he had never once lied.

Given that he wasn’t absorbed in some forum nonsense like last time, I had no choice but to accept that this was real and act quickly.

“Damn it! And here I thought things had been quiet lately!”

“Four, five! Oh crap!”

Cursing under my breath, I rushed out to the shared building entrance, and sure enough, the bear’s radar was at full capacity, detecting more and more as the numbers kept climbing.

Even he couldn’t hold it in anymore, spitting out curses alongside me.

Usually, the transformation spots I used were free, but today, all the adults chilling under the pergola at the playground to escape the heat made it hard to find an empty place.

“Sun!”

In a corner, beside a bunch of illegally parked cars. Just as the bear  told me there were six monsters, I finally transformed and took to the sky. There wasn’t any time for leisurely torture.

News reports or articles about magical girls? I couldn’t care less.

It’s just that they cause trouble for the people nearby, so I needed to finish this quickly.

“Hey, hey!”

“Die, you bastard!”

Unable to process the sudden change in the situation, my anger made me more vicious.

Relishing in the strength coursing through me, I slammed into the ground, leaving a huge crack as I crushed the monster beneath me.

It was so completely pulverized that there wasn’t even a trace of its original form. And before the magical dust could scatter, I was already soaring into the sky again, listening to the bear for the next target’s location.

“Where is it?!”

“There! Over there!”

The number of monsters kept growing. Even though I had just dealt with one, there were still seven more left. Sure, it was more reliable to go down and handle them one by one, but was I short on time or power?

“Screw it, I don’t even feel like going down! Beam-!”

Starting from the third monster, I just resorted to precision beam strikes from the sky, finishing them off in a clean sweep.

Watching the earth turn into craters and the monsters turn into magical dust, I repeated the process again and again.

And so, after 16 minutes and 49 seconds since the first monster appeared, I had eliminated all eight monsters that had shown up in my area.

Even though I had finished, it didn’t feel like I had. Sitting on a building rooftop, I asked the bear, “Are there any more?”

“Not at the moment….”

“Ah, damn it, what a ridiculous day….”

Confirming his words, I collapsed backward, lying down on the rooftop of some apartment I didn’t even know the name of.

What the hell was this, a mass drug-induced frenzy? Even though things had been quiet recently, why all this now?

Lying flat, I lazily rolled my eyes and grabbed the floating bear, pulling him close to my face.

“Hey, what the hell is going on?”

“Well, I don’t know either… This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. Never heard of it.”

“So I’m the first again? Damn it…”

I let go of the bear, realizing from its genuinely perplexed expression that it had no idea.

I dropped my right arm, which had been raised in front of my face, to the ground.

Lying flat on the rooftop of an apartment building, our backs pressed against the ground.

The smell of the green waterproof paint, baked by the sun, only emphasized our unfortunate situation.

Usually, when you’re the first at something, it feels good if it’s for something positive.

But being first in a negative way… well, it feels awful.

Drenched in frustration with nowhere to direct my anger, where was I supposed to unleash it?

“Looks like it’s not going to show up anymore. We should head back,” the bear cautiously suggested.

“Yeah, I guess so…” I sighed briefly as I got up from lying down and started heading home.

Surely, it won’t be like this next time.

As soon as I got home, I grabbed my smartphone and flopped onto my bed.

Before even entering the online community, the main search engine page was filled with fresh news.

Naturally, there was no way the recent appearance of the eight monsters wasn’t being talked about.

[Is there no longer a safe zone?! The once-considered ‘Safe City’…]

[Is this place a hot spot? Eight monsters appear simultaneously in this city.]

[No damage despite the appearance of eight monsters – what about the magical girl responsible for the area?]

Various media outlets pounced on the news like piranhas swarming fresh meat thrown into an Amazonian lake.

“Mari, are you tired?”

“Uh… no, no. Don’t worry about me,”

I answered, waving my hand dismissively, not wanting to cause concern, while tearing my eyes away from the smartphone.

In truth, I felt like I was about to drop dead from exhaustion… but I didn’t want Siyeon to worry.

As long as monsters don’t keep acting like this, it’ll be fine. As long as this doesn’t happen again…

But why did the monsters suddenly appear all at once like that?

I suddenly became curious about the reason behind their simultaneous appearance.

Should I have tried capturing the eighth one alive to ask? But it’s already turned to dust and vanished, so there’s no way to ask it now. At the time, I hurriedly dealt with it, worried another monster might show up soon, and that thought now only left me with regret.

“If this happens while I’m at school, it’ll be a real problem…”

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue, imagining the situation I desperately wanted to avoid.

The season was approaching where even the nights were getting uncomfortably warm.

Just as I was about to open the veranda door to let in a bit of cool air.

“Ugh, seriously.”

As if on cue, the smell of nicotine crept in, making me wrinkle my nose in disgust.

At moments like this, I wondered, am I really going around eliminating monsters for people like this? But then again, I do get paid, so it’s not like I’m purely doing it for humanity.

Money comes first. Helping people is just a bonus.

*Sighhh*

Feeling more tired than usual after an unusually active day, I find myself growing sleepy early.

Still, I think I should have dinner before falling asleep, so I ask Siyeon what she wants to eat.

“Pizza!”

“Pizza? What kind?”

“Anything!”

Though we’d decided on the type of food, Siyeon’s random answer left me once again deep in thought about the flavor.

Let’s just go with the Bulgogi and Pepperoni pizzas, easy enough. Big enough for the three of us, Bear and Sea Serpent included, and enough leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast.

After placing the order, I closed my eyes for a moment.

It was just a brief moment, but as if I were being drawn into something, my consciousness started slipping away.

‘I really shouldn’t be doing this again…’

With worry gnawing at me, I decided to sleep only until the pizza arrived.

But contrary to my concerns, inside the monster’s ship, the atmosphere was as lively as a festival on Earth. Normally, that recovery room should have been filled with cries of agony, tortured screams, or even insane laughter from monsters who had visited the black zone.

But the monsters that had awoken from the recovery pods were hugging one another, filled with joy and camaraderie that transcended species and gender.

“Woohooooo!! We did it!”

“I died instantly! I died in the blink of an eye!”

“This really works! Who came up with this idea?!”

“This isn’t the time to celebrate! We need to tell the others!”

Watching the monsters rush out of the recovery room, Medic Tentacle scratched his round head with his bundled tentacle-hands.

The strange excitement of the soldiers, who were grateful and even elated by how quickly they had died, left him with a peculiar feeling.

Far from gathering data on the Sun, they had simply dashed out of the room. With his arms crossed, he added a few words.

“Hmm, since when did our troops become a suicide squad?”

“It’s no surprise. It’s the ‘black zone’ after all.”

One of the monsters in the recovery room responded to Medic Tentacle’s muttering, making him realize anew how deeply the terror of the black zone was ingrained in the monsters.

Though he admired their valiant attempts to overcome it, their often incomprehensible requests were troubling.

“Last time, they asked me to make a suicide bomb. Honestly….”

“They probably think that having a bomb go off inside their own bodies is better than falling victim to that woman.”

After bringing up one of the more bizarre requests, one of the other monsters in the recovery room retorted, continuing the conversation. More back-and-forth.

“…Shouldn’t you be siding with me, as a member of the recovery team?”

Looking at the monster, slightly offended, Medic Tentacle questioned him with a bit of exasperation. After all, Medic Tentacle was his superior.

However, instead of the apology he expected, the subordinate monster responded with yet another question, this time something unexpected.

“Hmm. Then, Tentacle sir, would you want to go there yourself, unarmed?”

The unexpected question left Medic Tentacle silent.

Would I want to go there, unarmed?

Even if there were hundreds of mouths, there probably wasn’t a single one willing to answer ‘yes’ to that question.

‘No matter how desperate things are… a suicide bomb? A bomb for self-destruction…’

Unable to respond directly to the question thrown at them, the medic tentacle muttered internally, kicking the air with its tentacle-like limbs in a timid protest.

**Next episode**

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