Chapter 3 : I Became a Monster (3)

The gazes of the female soldiers who surrounded me had completely shifted away from me before I realized it.

Even though they must know how reckless it is to turn their backs on a monster at such close range.

That must mean they’ve encountered a monster so formidable that they don’t even consider me worth their attention.

“3222.”

“The Monster of Violence…!”

“W-What should we do? What can we do…?”

“Are we all going to die here? Is that it?”

A being so overwhelmingly powerful it made them forget even the will to fight back.

As such an opponent loomed before them, the female soldiers literally went pale with terror, looking as if they’d lost their minds.

“Everyone, don’t panic!”

Except for one.

The squad leader, who always commanded them, remained composed.

“I’ll be the decoy.”

“…!”

“N-No, ma’am!”

“You’ll definitely die! Besides, there’s that insignificant monster here too! We’re outnumbered, two to one!”

“It doesn’t matter. And you’ve seen it too. That insignificant one is no big deal.”

Meanwhile, I had somehow become the insignificant one.

“Just look at its pathetic state. It’s nothing more than a sturdy body, like a goat monster. Even with its leader here, it’s still burying its head in the ground.”

“Y-You’re right…!”

“That’s true. It’s utterly pathetic!”

No, I just had a gut feeling that moving might be a bad idea, so I stayed still…

But if I reacted out of anger to what they said and got up, that’d definitely spell trouble too.

So for now, staying put seems like the safest bet.

Sigh.

“Huh? Now it looks completely dejected.”

“See? There’s a reason it ended up as bait even among monsters!”

“So it’s the ‘outcast’ of the monster world! I understand now, Squad Leader.”

The kind of position where, during school breaks, you’d bury your head in the desk even if you weren’t sleepy.

I decided to play dead and remain unnoticed, just as they described me: the so-called outcast.

Meanwhile.

Crunch.

“Graaargh…”

“Th-The Monster of Violence is lifting the armored vehicle we arrived in…”

“And it just tore it completely in half…”

“Dammit! If it wanted, it could probably demolish a skyscraper in one blow! I bet it’s just toying with us right now.”

The monster standing before the female soldiers.

Its name was undoubtedly “The Monster of Violence.”

It seemed like that creature was responsible for turning this city, Y City, into ruins.

By the way.

“The Monster of Violence? …That name sounds familiar.”

It felt like a monster I’d almost remembered but couldn’t quite place.

After all, I was a veteran player who stuck with Kaiju Frontline until the very end of its service.

I was sure I’d encountered it somewhere in the game.

And if it had the power to destroy an entire city like this, it must be at least a quasi-first-class monster.

“Who was it again…?”

While lying flat on the ground, lost in thought.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots echoed from above.

“Monster of Violence! Your opponent is me!”

The squad leader finally took on the role of decoy for her subordinates.

She drew the handgun strapped to her waist and fired bullets designed specifically for monsters directly at the Monster of Violence.

Her shooting skills were remarkable.

Unlike in movies, I’d heard that handguns, with their short barrels, made accurate shooting difficult.

But all three bullets she fired hit the Monster of Violence squarely in the eyes.

“Screeeech?!”

“A-Amazing…”

“To hit only the eyes so precisely—just as expected from the Squad Leader!”

“But it’s just a diversion! While I hold it off, you all retreat immediately.”

Like all living beings, monsters instinctively chased after whatever attacked them first.

Using this trait, the squad leader sprinted in the opposite direction of her subordinates.

“Graargh…”

Of course, even though the Monster of Violence had bullets specifically designed for monsters shot into its eyes, it took no damage.

“Here! Over here!”

Bang! Bang!

The creature, still watching the squad leader fire her gun alone.

Whoosh.

Just as planned, it leapt high into the air.

Boom!

“Huh?”

“What?”

“What just happened?”

It landed right in front of the female soldiers instead of chasing after the squad leader.

“I’m sure I attacked it first… So why…?”

The squad leader, who had intended to act as bait for her subordinates but ended up turning them into bait instead, looked flustered.

But I wasn’t particularly surprised.

Because this was “normal.”

“Monsters chase after the first attacker… But that’s only true for lower-class monsters, whose instincts overpower their underdeveloped brains.”

This time, however, the opponent was a high-class monster capable of destroying an entire city.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if it possessed intelligence to match its destructive power.

In fact, it might even be capable of understanding human speech, like me, even if it couldn’t speak.

Still, since it was a monster defined by violence, perhaps its knowledge wasn’t particularly high.

The squad leader’s mistake was underestimating the creature’s intelligence after seeing it act like a foolish local bully.

“Hey, you monster! Look over here! Come and follow me!”

Bang, bang, bang!

The squad leader continued pulling the trigger until her magazine was empty.

“These bullets are more expensive than most artillery shells! So at least look at me!”

Bullets designed specifically for combating monsters.

Up until now, humans and heroes had relied on such scientific advancements to subdue countless monsters.

But against quasi-first-class monsters that could single-handedly devastate entire cities, such tactics were useless.

They were walking calamities.

“Damn it, damn it!”

If even S-class heroes failed to subdue a monster, the Hero Association would resort to nuclear strikes, turning the area into uninhabitable wastelands.

In fact, one of the comedic endings in Kaiju Frontline featured such a scenario.

But now that the game had become reality, it was no longer a laughing matter.

“Phew, for now, it’s probably better if I just stay here, isn’t it?”

In my previous life, I grew up in a middle-class family, graduated from college without much distinction, and worked as an ordinary office worker.

I wasn’t a bad person, but I wasn’t exactly a saint who would throw myself into harm’s way to save dying soldiers either.
Now, my species is that of a kaiju (monster).

At least by staying still, I didn’t have to worry about being killed by a fellow kaiju like the Monster of Violence.

“Ah, Mom! Mom!”
“Fire everything we’ve got!”
“It’s no use… We’re all going to die here!”

Even if I did get up and try something, what could I possibly do against a monster that could devour an entire city?
So while I did feel a bit of guilt, I also wanted to survive.

“The Monster of Violence… The Monster of Violence…”
I repeated the name of the creature, hoping it would disappear from my vicinity.

“…The Monster of Violence?”

As I remained silent, memories from my past life suddenly started surfacing.

“Ah, damn it, how the hell are we supposed to kill this bastard? Doesn’t it have a weakness?”

Right, the Monster of Violence.

I knew this creature.

It first appeared during the 1.5th-anniversary event of Kaiju Frontlines—the very event where the hero-exclusive gear system was introduced.
It was a kaiju that could only be defeated with those exclusive gears.

“To equip exclusive gear for one hero, you’d need to hit the pity system ceiling, costing at least 600,000 won. And you could have up to five heroes in a deck…”

Which means, during the 1.5th anniversary, I spent a staggering three million won.
…I even had to break into my savings for that.

I jumped to my feet.

Over 100 military units were clearing out lesser kaiju near the city outskirts to secure the area for the S-class hero expected to arrive in Y City soon. Among them, the 27th unit was unexpectedly facing a crisis, and their situation was being monitored in real-time by the Hero Association.

“Why is the Monster of Violence in the outskirts instead of the city center?”
“I don’t know. Damn it, I was monitoring it because I got a report about a rare humanoid kaiju!”
“At this rate, the 27th unit is going to be wiped out!”
“How much longer until S-class hero number three, Flash Fox, arrives in Y City?”
“Well… it’ll take at least 30 minutes.”

The Hero Association’s monitoring room was in a frenzy.

The Monster of Violence, which should have been contained in Y City, had somehow made its way to the outskirts. If it advanced just one more kilometer from where it had encountered the 27th unit, it would reach X City, which still had residents.

“Should we issue an emergency evacuation order for X City, just in case?”
“We can’t! Half of Y City’s refugees are already gathered there. How could we not only fail to protect them but also force them to become refugees again?”

Doing so would ruin the Hero Association’s reputation.

Supported by countless NGOs, corporations, and governments, the association couldn’t afford further mishaps.

But was avoiding this even possible in the current situation?

As if things couldn’t get worse—

“Uh, Team Leader, we’ve got trouble!”
“We’ve detected movement from a humanoid kaiju suspected to be following the Monster of Violence!”

It was as if the heavens had abandoned the 27th unit.

While pretending to surrender, a no-name, low-tier kaiju had started stirring.

“Damn it… The 27th unit somehow needs to lure those things back into Y City’s center!”

Should they issue an emergency evacuation order for X City like they had for Y City a month ago?
As important as reputation was, it couldn’t come at the cost of lives.

But issuing an evacuation order for an entire city required certain procedures, and there simply wasn’t enough time for that now.

They were cornered.

“T-The humanoid kaiju is moving first!”
“Damn it!”

While the low-tier kaiju occupied the military, the Monster of Violence breached the walls of Y City and advanced toward X City.

Boom!
[Screeeeech?!]

…Or so it seemed.

“Huh?”
“What?”

What appeared on the monitors was an entirely unexpected scene.

The Monster of Violence, which hadn’t even flinched from any hero’s attacks or the latest high-tech weaponry, was now…

“The Monster of Violence is…”
“Bleeding?”

The supposed subordinate, the low-tier kaiju, had punched the Monster of Violence so hard that it spat out blood and was flung onto the ruins of a department store it had destroyed.