Chapter 11. Night of the Living Steak (2)
“Moooooo.”
The steak kept letting out low cries.
Victoria approached it carefully with a frightened expression.
“H-Hello?”
“Prrrrrrr!”
Like an animal shaking itself dry, the steak violently shook its body from side to side.
Drops of red Elixir and blood scattered everywhere.
At a glance, it looked almost like a newborn calf struggling to stand after emerging from amniotic fluid.
“You were scared after suddenly waking up in a strange place like this, weren’t you? But it’s okay now.”
Victoria tried to calm the steak in a gentle voice.
“You’ll be fine. I promise nothing bad will happen. You’re safe. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re just... going to cut off a little bit of your flesh whenever we get hungry.”
Perhaps it understood the last part, because the steak immediately backed away in alarm.
“Moo?”
“I chose my words poorly, didn’t I? Sorry. Let me correct that.”
Realizing her mistake, Victoria quickly apologized.
Then she smiled warmly and slowly placed a hand on the steak’s head.
“Anyway, nothing bad will happen. Trust me.”
“Prrrrrrr!”
Fortunately, the steak only trembled slightly and did not reject her unfamiliar touch.
Victoria realized it was much calmer than expected and smiled awkwardly.
“There, there. Good boy.”
At that moment, the steak suddenly opened its huge mouth and bit down hard on Victoria’s head.
Crunch!
“Aaaaaah!”
Victoria screamed and flailed as the steak clamped down on her.
Yukgap, who had been watching, immediately shouted.
“Victoria!”
With half her head inside the steak’s mouth, Victoria thrashed desperately.
“Get this damn steak off me! Hurry!”
“I thought humanity’s future food supply depended on it.”
“It does, but this bastard is biting me right now!”
Apparently, her concern for humanity’s future food supply had completely vanished.
Yukgap clenched his teeth and rushed forward to save her.
“I knew this would happen!”
The moment Yukgap moved, the steak sensed him and let out a long cry.
“Moooooooo!”
At the same time, chunks of flesh erupted from its enormous body and wrapped around Victoria.
They pulled her tightly against the steak.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
With her entire body trapped in the steak’s flesh, Victoria could only let out muffled groans.
Considering even someone as physically strong as Victoria could not break free, the steak’s grip was far stronger than it looked.
“Is this bastard using Victoria as a shield?”
Yukgap stopped in alarm.
The steak and Victoria were practically fused together now.
If he attacked carelessly, he could injure Victoria too.
[I heard the Doctor screaming.]
Robert hurried over while beeping urgently.
Yukgap pointed at the steak.
“Victoria got eaten by that thing.”
Red lights immediately appeared in Robert’s eyes.
[Emergency rescue protocol initiated.]
His arm bent at a right angle.
A gun barrel emerged from inside.
It looked dangerous at a glance.
“What’s that?”
[A shotgun.]
Yukgap recoiled.
“Are you insane? Victoria’s inside that thing too!”
[The Doctor is not someone who would die from something like that.]
Yukgap unconsciously nodded.
“...That’s true.”
[Then move aside. I will dispose of the steak.]
Bang!
Robert’s shotgun roared.
The blast tore a massive hole through the steak’s flesh.
Robert continued firing without pause.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The steak’s body was gradually blown apart by the repeated shots.
“Moooooo!”
It screamed in pain.
Yukgap’s face brightened.
“Good! Is it working?”
But only for a moment.
The pieces of flesh that had been blown away began writhing.
Then they rapidly regenerated.
Robert sounded troubled.
[Incorrect. Its growth rate exceeds the rate of destruction.]
“Damn it. Then I’ve got no choice.”
Yukgap clenched his teeth and gripped his daggers.
Robert immediately noticed his intention.
[What are you planning?]
“I stayed back because Victoria might get caught up in it, but I don’t think we have that luxury anymore.”
Yukgap’s eyes suddenly glowed bright yellow.
The fierce light of a predator flashed within them.
His body expanded.
Spotted fur spread across his skin.
Animal muscles bulged across his arms and legs, and sharp predator-like fangs emerged from his mouth.
Then his face fully changed into that of a beast, complete with pointed triangular ears.
This was the final combat form of one of the Twelve Archons.
A chimera biological weapon created by the military-industrial corporation Abraxas.
A sleek and vicious fusion of human and predator.
“Staying like this makes me hungry really fast, but I can’t just stand here and watch our precious owner get eaten by a steak.”
The animal fused into Yukgap was a cheetah, known as the fastest land predator.
The moment his beast traits fully manifested, his eyesight and reflexes reached their peak.
“Stay still and let me slice you up, steak!”
Yukgap growled and charged.
Using all six daggers of different sizes, he began cutting into the steak at insane speed.
“Moooooo!”
The steak screamed sharply.
Thanks to the Elixir, it possessed monstrous regeneration.
Every time Yukgap sliced something off, it began growing back almost immediately.
But to Yukgap, even that seemed laughably slow.
“So its growth rate is faster than its destruction rate?”
His arms moved without pause.
Four cuts per second.
Eight.
Sixteen.
Thirty-two.
Sixty-four.
One hundred and twenty-eight.
As his movements accelerated, his blades tore through the steak at an exponentially increasing rate.
“Let’s see if you can keep up with my speed!”
Little by little, Yukgap’s cutting speed began overtaking the steak’s regeneration.
If it regenerated quickly, all he had to do was cut even faster.
“Moooo...!”
Eventually, the steak’s regeneration began slowing down.
[Your back is exposed, lump of flesh.]
Robert moved behind Yukgap and unleashed a blast of flame.
Burning chunks of flesh dropped to the floor.
“What are those?”
[The flesh you cut away. Each piece remains alive while retaining its biological structure. Simply separating it is insufficient.]
Only then did Yukgap notice that the pieces of steak he had sliced off were wriggling on the ground.
He had assumed cutting them apart would be enough.
Apparently, even the individual pieces were alive.
At this rate, there would be no end to it.
“This is seriously annoying!”
Yukgap quickly scanned the laboratory for something that could solve the problem.
His eyes landed on a liquid nitrogen tank used for experiments.
“Scrap heap, do you think Victoria has resistance to cold too?”
[I cannot confirm. However, the Doctor has previously suffered no meaningful damage from extreme heat.]
“Good enough!”
Yukgap immediately rushed toward the liquid nitrogen tank.
Then he hurled it toward the steak.
“Time for a deep freeze!”
Yukgap threw one of his daggers at the tank.
The blade struck it dead center.
White liquid nitrogen exploded outward and showered the steak.
“Moooooo...”
The steak began freezing rapidly.
Yukgap immediately shouted at Robert.
“Now! Smash it!”
[Become food peacefully, foolish lump of flesh!]
Robert fired his shotgun at the frozen steak.
Now that it was completely frozen, it could no longer regenerate like before.
Crack!
“Hyaaah!”
Victoria burst free by smashing apart the frozen meat around her.
Yukgap immediately checked on her.
“You okay?”
“Other than almost being eaten by a steak, I’m perfectly fine.”
Despite Yukgap’s concern, Victoria looked completely unharmed.
She angrily kicked the frozen steak.
“You damn bastard! You should’ve quietly become food and contributed to human civilization! How dare a steak try to eat its own creator? Ungrateful little shit!”
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the frozen and shattered steak showed no resistance.
Yukgap looked at the piles of frozen meat scattered everywhere.
“So what are we going to do with this? It’ll probably go crazy again once it thaws.”
Victoria answered as if the solution were obvious.
“What’s there to think about? There’s only one use for steak.”
[Four more steak rice bowls! Customers continue to arrive. Move faster!]
“I’m grilling as fast as I can, so give me a second!”
Yukgap was sweating from the endless orders.
Restaurant Shelley was almost overflowing with customers.
“Hehehe. As expected, once we sell steak this cheaply, people come running like moths to a flame! At this rate, getting rid of all the multiplied steak won’t be a problem.”
Victoria smiled while looking at the sign posted in front of the restaurant.
[Limited Special: Steak, 5,000 won per serving]
The moment word spread that the restaurant was selling steak at such a low price, customers came flooding in.
At this rate, they really would be able to get rid of all the multiplied meat.
“You two should eat too. Yours is free. Got it?”
Victoria looked toward Jeonghan and Yuhan, who were sitting in a corner with miserable expressions.
They had come for salmon rice bowls and had somehow been forced into eating steak.
Their faces openly showed how much they did not want it.
“Ugh... I feel sick.”
“Do we really have to eat this?”
Apparently, after witnessing the brutal fight against the living steak, they had completely lost their appetites.
“You two are witnesses, right?”
Victoria asked them in a chilling voice.
“Choose. Eat the steak... or become the next ingredients.”
The brothers immediately nodded in terror.
“Eeeek!”
“We’ll eat it! We’ll eat!”
They hurriedly forced the steak down their throats.
Yukgap sighed as he watched.
“I don’t know if this is really okay.”
“What’s wrong with it? To get this much meat normally, several cows would have to be slaughtered. But this one multiplied steak gave us enough meat to replace all of that and more. Technically, we saved several cows.”
Victoria remained confident.
She smiled at the other customers, who knew nothing and happily ate their steak.
“More importantly, doesn’t seeing customers enjoying themselves make you feel proud?”
Yukgap gave up trying to argue with her.
As always, having a conversation with Victoria based on ordinary common sense was exhausting.
“Forget it. Why do I even bother talking to you?”
Victoria only scolded him.
“If you understand, then hurry up and cook! The customers are waiting!”
“Yes, yes. I got it.”
Yukgap nodded lazily and continued grilling steaks.
There was still plenty of frozen steak left.
Somehow, they had to use all of it before it thawed.
It looked like it was going to be a very long night.
