ST is 1100.
1100.
One thousand one hundred.
One thousand.
It’s a thousand.
A four-digit number.
Three zeros.
That’s 100 times what it was at the start.
“………….”
My emotions surge.
My heart starts pounding wildly.
A smile rises on its own.
I think to myself.
Am I insanely strong now?
...No.
Wait.
It’s good that I got stronger, but.
...Calm down. Calm down.
Get a grip.
Don’t start thinking you’re some kind of monster now.
Throw that thought away.
No.
I’m weak.
Weak.
You’re trash.
Trash.
Above high-rank, there’s demon-level, and above demon-level there’s dragon-level.
That means there are two more tiers above this.
Just like with low-rank, there are surely differences even within high-rank.
And.
Most of all.
That dragon-level thing I could blow apart in one hit....
...
...What the hell kind of insane delusion was I just having?
In an instant, the feeling of coming back to my senses crashes over me.
“...Damn it.”
...Looks like I really did go a little crazy.
The excitement that had flared up so quickly dies down.
I almost forgot my own situation for a moment.
I’m only high-rank.
I got excited because the unit for my stats changed, and for a second I forgot, but I only escaped the very bottom of the disaster level.
I’m still lower-tier.
Think of it as running into that dragon-level monster from last time.
Does anything change?
No.
Nothing changes.
I got blown into a near-death state when my lower half exploded without even getting hit by his fist.
Because I was weak.
Because I was nothing special.
Because I was the lowest-ranked of the monsters.
That was the only reason that “miracle” was possible.
If his fist had been even a little higher, I would have died.
If he’d focused even a little more, I would have died.
What about me now?
Chances are, if that guy actually attacked properly, I’d be instantly killed the moment we met.
And that’s not all.
Let’s say I attacked him one-sidedly.
I wouldn’t be able to do any damage at all.
Instead, my claws would break, my teeth would shatter.
And in the very end, I’d die from exhaustion.
...It’s still sickeningly distant.
“...Ha, haha. Hahaha.”
But what am I saying?
Am I insanely strong now?
That’s the kind of thing you say after you’ve gotten past demon-level.
No.
Even saying “after demon-level” is probably still far beyond me.
I almost got drunk on the excitement for a moment and let arrogance take over.
Stay calm.
If I don’t, I won’t survive.
Arrogance gets you killed. That’s reality.
I remember the monster I killed at the convenience store.
If it had been a straight-up fight, I would have died.
I remember the crocodile mole.
If that thing had been a little smarter, I would have died.
I won because I wasn’t arrogant.
Because I could analyze the fight coldly and find the opponent’s opening, I’d managed to win so far.
No. Even then, there were definitely fights that hadn’t been easy.
Would things really be that different now that I’m high-rank?
I don’t know.
I was a top-tier low-rank monster and managed to take down a high-rank monster.
And then I got twice as strong as that state.
But I don’t know what the other high-rank monsters are like.
I don’t even know whether the high-rank monster I killed was weak or strong.
So.
Criticize yourself.
Always assume the worst.
I’m still weak.
And by becoming a little stronger, I’ve almost lost the advantages I only had because I was weak.
And just now, I almost lost the biggest advantage of all.
So.
Know your place properly.
“Ha... haha... ha.”
...Besides.
What does it matter if I’m strong when I can’t even keep my body under control?
“………….”
...I’m hungry.
For now, I should eat the corpse of the monster I just killed.
That’ll at least... make this embarrassment fade a little.
So.
Silently.
I stagger over and start tearing into the corpse.
“...Gogmuboots is dead?”
“Yeah, apparently he was killed by a monster. Didn’t you see the news?”
People can’t even watch the news sometimes.
What kind of nasty thing is that to say to someone who knows how busy operator work has been lately?
Still.
...That guy was a rookie, so he was C-rank, but wasn’t his actual combat ability basically B-rank?
I remembered him as a promising talent with decent fighting power and a name that was just starting to get around.
“...What killed him?”
“From what I heard, he died during combat with a demon-level monster. That’s what the news said too... but there are some weird parts.”
“………….”
Demon-level.
A crisis so severe it could halt or even destroy an entire city.
A disaster level that, by itself, boasts such overwhelming power that only multiple heroes, with thorough preparation and a proper strategy, can even hope to oppose it.
And even then, they have to risk their lives.
That’s why multiple A-rank heroes, or an S-rank hero, usually take the field.
So.
A mere B-rank level of combat power.
That should not work against a demon-level monster.
That’s normal.
To begin with.
For a hero of B-rank or lower to charge a monster of high-rank or above alone is suicide.
So if the opponent was demon-level, dying makes sense.
...But.
“...He fought a demon-level monster? Isn’t that a little strange?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Gogmuboots.
Among heroes, he was unusually intuitive, to the point of being hard to understand.
Because of that, he had a specialty that made use of that ability.
It was the ability to distinguish between enemies he could handle and enemies he couldn’t.
Not only that, he understood his own combat level very well.
That’s why I’d heard he always checked a monster’s information properly before going in to fight.
And yet.
That kind of person charged a demon-level monster alone?
No.
Even if he really did charge a demon-level monster.
“And they were chasing that demon-level monster... but lost it?”
Isn’t it strange that they lost a demon-level monster that appeared alone, unless nobody was watching?
“So I came up with one theory.”
“...What is it?”
“What if the one he fought wasn’t demon-level, but high-rank? And what if he was caught off guard and killed by that high-rank monster?”
“...Did an executive falsify the information? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know. But it makes sense. If you assume that, everything lines up.”
“...Sigh....”
Reiko, a veteran operator who had been working at the Association for about two years, let out a sigh.
Just a few days ago, her younger brother, who worked a part-time job, had barely come back alive after almost being killed by a monster.
Yesterday, her cousin had almost been killed by a dragon-level monster.
It was already a complicated feeling.
She was worried and unsettled, wondering if something like that might happen again.
And now even her workplace was turning into a mess.
She really felt like quitting.
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