Chapter 137: The Night Market
This place was the local market that served nearby residents.
The prices were affordable and the quality was good.
Farmers often came from the countryside bringing freshly harvested vegetables and other produce to sell.
Many middle aged and elderly residents were willing to walk much farther just to save a few coins on groceries.
For cats, this was also a place they frequently visited because of the abundance of rats.
Byeol was therefore extremely familiar with it.
Of course, cats and dogs themselves weren’t particularly welcome here either.
Since the market was crowded with people during the day, they rarely appeared while business was open.
Once night fell, however, animals would emerge from every corner to search for food and it wasn’t unusual for them to get into one or two fights over scraps.
Whenever work wasn’t too busy, Joo Joowon often came here himself to buy chicken breast, fish, and other ingredients to make homemade meals for Byeol.
Occasionally he even brought Byeol along and allowed it to choose its own food.
Because the market was always locked by staff members at night, it was unusually quiet now.
The shops on both sides had their shutters pulled down, and the stone tables in the middle used by street vendors sat completely empty.
Even so, the smell of blood and fish remained overwhelming, making Hwi instinctively lick its nose.
There was one fish shop and one seafood shop inside the market, along with two pork stalls and two cooked food stores.
There were also plenty of small shops selling miscellaneous items.
Aside from the seafood shops, however, there were very few living creatures here.
Byeol stood still for a moment and sniffed the air carefully before heading directly toward the seafood section.
Beside the seafood shop was a store that specialized in selling eggs, causing the smells in that area to become especially concentrated.
The metal shutter of the seafood shop itself had been deeply dented by some kind of impact, and dried fish blood stained the ground beneath it.
Most of these shops followed the common pattern of operating their business on the first floor while the owners lived upstairs on the second floor.
Byeol pawed lightly at several of the metal shutters.
The noise it made wasn’t particularly loud, yet the creatures inside immediately became agitated, slamming against the shutters with a loud bang and creating another deep dent in the metal.
The sudden sound startled Byeol so badly that it instinctively jumped into the air.
Its tail puffed up like a squirrel’s, while Hwi, who had been crouching near a sewer entrance trying to track down the scent of rats, was also startled and nearly got its paw stuck in the gap of the concrete drain cover.
"Meow?"
Hwi hurried over to Byeol’s side.
"Meoww!"
The cries of the two cats only made the creatures inside even more excited.
The shutters shook violently under repeated impacts and the dents grew larger and larger.
The enormous commotion transformed what had originally seemed like a completely lifeless and silent market into a chaotic scene.
The crashing sounds rang out endlessly, while the roars rose and fell one after another from all directions.
Byeol flattened its ears slightly.
After thinking for a moment, it called to Hwi and immediately darted into the stone vendor stalls in the center of the market.
Even sturdy metal shutters couldn’t withstand such frenzied attacks forever.
Before long, the creatures trapped inside finally broke free.
Byeol poked its head out cautiously, its beautiful cat eyes wide open.
The creature that emerged crawled along the ground on all fours.
Two long fleshy whiskers extended from its cheeks and dragged all the way across the floor.
Its protruding eyes bulged outward in perfect circles.
Its face resembled that of an overgrown catfish, complete with swollen cheeks and a gigantic mouth stretching from beneath one ear all the way to the other side of its face, opening and closing constantly.
Its small blood red eyes were filled with brutality and savagery.
Fish fins extended from the elbow joints of its arms.
Its legs dragged uselessly behind it, fused tightly together as though they had become one.
Byeol’s pupils shook violently.
The last time it had seen something this visually shocking was when its food provider bought that bizarre fish headed mask from a livestream shopping channel.
Had all the two legged creatures outside transformed into things like this now?
As an aquatic creature, the mutated catfish was capable of moving on land, but it clearly lacked both good eyesight and a good sense of smell.
Instead, it relied heavily on the tiny vibrations transmitted through the ground.
As a result, it immediately flicked its tail and charged toward the metal shutter that had been making the most noise.
At almost the exact same moment, the shutter on the opposite side was also broken apart from within.
A dark green crab burst out through the opening, raising two enormous claws high into the air.
The overflowing life energy radiating from it instantly drove every other thought out of the starving mutated catfish’s mind.
It shot forward like a cannonball.
The mutated crab raised its claws in response, showing absolutely no fear whatsoever.
Byeol flicked its tail and glanced at them briefly.
It had no interest in standing around to watch the excitement unfold.
With a single leap, it jumped through the damaged shutter and entered the shop itself.
The shop was filled with shattered glass and broken foam boxes.
Many fish lay stiff on the ground, giving off the smell of decay.
Mixed together with the scent of raw fish, it created an extremely nauseating stench.
After taking a quick look around, Byeol returned disappointed.
Food that had rotted to this extent wasn’t something even it would eat!
With nothing to gain here, Byeol had no choice but to jump back outside.
It called for Hwi and, while the two mutated catfish were too busy fighting to pay attention, the pair darted into another seafood shop.