Chapter 103: I Want to Be an Ex-Diver (3)

EP.103 I Want to Be an Ex-Diver (3)

Sea Spider.

This creature, second to none in its grotesque and creepy appearance, looks exactly like its name suggests – like a spider.

Picture what we typically imagine when we think of a ‘spider’. A small, stubby body with eight legs attached to it, each much longer than the body itself.

Now, modify that image by changing the body to a short rod shape and extending the legs to about three times their length – that’s what a sea spider looks like.

Imagine it crawling along the ocean floor, through rocky crevices, or among coral, just like a land spider would.

Moving each of its eight long legs independently, creeping along.

Unlike land spiders, sea spiders don’t have swollen, bulbous abdomens, so from a distance, they can be mistaken for discarded fishing nets or torn coral. It’s hard to tell whether their swaying movement is from the water current or their own volition.

And when you get close? Ta-da! A sea spider with a 6cm body length and 40cm legs.

Ugh.

Though its name often, well frequently, causes misunderstandings, a sea spider isn’t actually a spider. Real aquatic spiders are called water spiders, and they’re completely different from their vaguely related cousins, spider crabs.

So basically, it’s just another fucking weird-looking deep-sea creature.

However, its feeding method is similar to spiders. It stabs its mouth, located at the end of its rod-shaped body, into soft marine creatures and sucks out their bodily fluids.

Well, that’s the explanation of the deep-sea creature, the sea spider.

“Now I’ll explain about the monster fish, Tokeless.”

Parang continued her explanation leisurely.

Though the situation was anything but leisurely.

Whoosh-!!

Tokeless’s elongated leg barely grazed past Parang’s head.

If her position had been off by even a hand’s width, it would have been a direct hit.

The unsettling tentacles extending from the legs writhed horrifically as they tried to grab Parang, but she easily avoided them.

Between the tentacles, gleaming black spheres caught the eye.

They were all eyes.

An agonized scream erupted from beside Parang.

“Aagh!! Holy!! Shit!! This is so gross!!!”

It was Yuna’s scream.

Currently, Parang was following alongside Yuna’s submarine as she battled Tokeless, giving a lecture about monster fishes.

Since her camera and microphone were broken, she had to use the ones attached to Yuna’s submarine.

A professor who’s not only pretty and nice but also follows you around?

And doesn’t even give homework!

Most college students would be over the moon.

In that sense, you could say Yuna was blessed beyond measure.

“I made eye contact!! Eye contact!!! Aaaaaahhh!!!”

Though she didn’t seem to realize how fortunate she was.

Anyway, that was roughly the current situation.

To be honest, when Parang brought out something spider-like, Yuna had secretly rejoiced.

A spider? This is like the easiest prey ever. Sure, it’s enormously big, but with such a flimsy body structure, it can probably only cling to the train’s exterior.

All Yuna would need to do is bombard it with everything she’s got from outside its range.

It couldn’t be simpler. Yuna felt secretly grateful to Parang.

While she had boldly declared her challenge, she had been quietly worried about what she’d do if a truly strong and fast monster fish appeared. It would be catastrophic if this precious submarine got wrecked.

Surely the merciful Parang had matched her with an easy opponent, understanding her concerns.

…or so Yuna had thought at one point.

That naive notion was shattered by a single sentence from Parang.

“Unlike sea spiders, Tokeless is excellent at swimming. Sometimes it creates the illusion that it’s actually crawling through the water.”

“Huh?”

No sooner had those words ended than Tokeless, having withdrawn its last leg from the window, detached itself from the train’s exterior with a pop.

“Uh, uhhh…!!!”

And then, flailing its massive legs frantically, it came crawling madly toward Yuna’s position as if there was solid ground underwater.

The situation where something you believed could never harm you suddenly charges at you. To make matters worse, Yuna’s high-performance camera was diligently transmitting Tokeless’s creepy appearance to her in high definition.

At the end of its rod-shaped body was a cylindrical mouth that looked like something out of a sandworm movie.

On the sides of its body were legs that frantically bent and stretched their three joints in and out as they pursued their target.

The tentacles that grew thickly on the already creepy legs, each writhing in their own way.

It was driving Yuna crazy.

Panicked, Yuna made a mistake with the controls and hit the forward button instead of reverse.

Vrooooom-!!

And that’s how she ended up in the current situation, engaged in close combat with Tokeless.

Yuna was understandably miserable. Just dodging the legs coming at her from all directions – front, back, left, right, up, and down – was overwhelming enough that she couldn’t even attempt to attack.

Parang, finding something amusing about all this, followed alongside Yuna’s submarine with a satisfied smile, matching her course exactly.

It was really annoying how she calmly continued her monster fish lecture as if telling Yuna not to even think about getting help.

“Real sea spiders don’t have separate respiratory organs like gills or lungs. This is something they have in common with insects. That doesn’t mean they don’t breathe though. They just use a different method.”

Parang now took an even more relaxed posture, clasping her hands behind her back as she reclined.

Yet her movement pattern didn’t waver at all. She maintained a constant distance beside Yuna’s submarine.

She even showed off by casually deflecting attacks that Yuna had barely managed to dodge.

“Sea spiders use their legs to breathe. The surface of their legs is structured to filter oxygen from the water. When they stir the water with their legs to move, they get the effect of breathing at the same time.”

Parang waved her arms and legs around, imitating a sea spider.

It looked nothing like one.

“When mutated into the monster fish Tokeless, the legs gain a different function. They absorb prey. Those tentacles on the legs all secrete a sticky fluid. When small monster fishes stick to them, they dissolve and absorb them, and sometimes they’re used to stick to larger monster fishes too.”

‘Damn… where should I go…!’

Yuna was too busy dodging Tokeless’s legs to pay attention to Parang’s explanation. Though she managed to dodge the legs by moving this way and that, it wasn’t easy given how erratic the movements were.

If she could somehow break through the encirclement of legs there might be a chance, but the defense was too thorough. Yuna’s worries deepened.

Meanwhile, Parang was completely absorbed in her monster fish lecture. She seemed excited to have an opportunity to teach after so long.

“The original respiratory function of the legs has atrophied. Instead, the body has grown large enough to serve as a respiratory organ. This compensates for the weakness of easily breakable legs. Even if they break, it’s not much of a problem. And new mouths form on each foot, giving it nine mouths in total…”

‘Easily breakable…!!’

Just one sentence from Parang’s previously ignored explanation suddenly struck Yuna’s mind.

‘If this war of attrition continues, I’m in trouble…!’

Yuna’s submarine had been performing almost acrobatic movements up until now. At this rate, she might rapidly run out of fuel, or worse, the engine could catastrophically overheat.

‘It’s now or never!!’

Having made her quick decision, Yuna stopped dodging the legs and charged straight ahead.

Her plan was to crash the submarine into the legs and break them completely.

If she failed, it would be game over.

“AAAAHHHHH!!!!!! DIE!!!!!!!”

Covering her fear with a mighty battle cry, Yuna’s submarine finally rammed into Tokeless’s legs.

CRACK!!!

To cut to the conclusion, it was a success.

Yuna’s submarine magnificently broke Tokeless’s legs and succeeded in escaping.

After quickly putting distance between them, she fired all her equipped weapons and blew Tokeless to pieces.

Victory.

It was victory.

The chat window was silent for a moment, then…

─Yuna!! Yuna!! Yuna!! Yuna!!

─Mom, I want to be Shin Yuna!! Mom, I want to be Shin Yuna!!

─GREAT YU NA

─GOD YUNA

They soon began passionately praising her.

Parang also knocked on the submarine while giving Yuna praise.

“Well done. Though I didn’t expect you to fall right into the trap I set to throw you off.”

“What trap?”

“I deliberately chose Tokeless. People tend to panic when a spider that was stuck to a wall suddenly starts crawling through empty space.”

“Ah…”

“But in the deep sea, this is everyday life. You always have to assume the worst case scenario and keep all available options in mind. That’s what I wanted to teach you.”

In response to Parang’s sincere advice, Yuna warmly replied.

“Th… th…”

“If you’re trying to say thank you…”

“WOULD IT KILL YOU TO TEACH MORE GENTLY, YOU FISH WOMAN!!!!”

BOOM!!

A warm shell to your heart, kaboom.

In any case, the broadcast ended in a friendly atmosphere.

─Good night

─ㅇㅂㅇ

─You’ll come back next time, right? We’re not breaking up, right?

─I’ve asked 314,091 times why her clothes are still intact

[ This broadcast has ended ]

“Good work. Head on in.”

“Yeah. You worked hard today too. But aren’t you going home?”

“Ah, I have some business at the Hive.”

“I see… Is it something I can’t help with?”

“You couldn’t help even if you wanted to. I appreciate the thought though.”

“Okay, got it.”

And with that, Shin Yuna made her exit. Parang remained alone.

All alone-

She took out her Kraken, roughly cleared out the monster fishes inside the train, and went outside.

And then.

Stretch-

Parang extended her hand out into empty space.

Something came rushing in from far away with tremendous force…

GRAB!!

And was caught right in Parang’s hand.

It was the sailfish monster fish that Parang had caught before the broadcast.

Parang casually carried it and returned home.

Then, unusually, she sat down at her desk without changing clothes, just drying off.

She turned on her computer and started reviewing today’s recorded footage.

In the video, Parang was holding the sailfish monster fish that was now flopping around on her floor with a startled expression.

“Perception distortion release.”

Swoosh-

The sailfish monster fish that had been flopping on Parang’s floor had transformed into her harpoon.

While in the video, Parang was still holding what appeared to be a sailfish monster fish.

‘Good. As expected.’

The sailfish monster fish that Parang had caught today wasn’t a monster fish at all. It was her harpoon with perception distortion applied to make it look like a sailfish.

And the harpoon wasn’t the only thing under perception distortion during today’s broadcast.

“Perception distortion release.”

Swoosh-

This time, Parang’s body changed form.

Parang looked down at her clothes, which were completely torn and ripped apart.

Yuna’s firepower had certainly been strong.

When she took the first bombardment, Parang’s clothes were already mostly torn away.

After taking that twice, there was no way any clothes would remain.

‘The effect was more definitive than I expected.’

She had broadcast today in a half-naked state, with perception distortion applied to her body.

Making people perceive her as ‘fully-clothed Yu Parang.’

Until the end of the broadcast, comments kept asking why her clothes were intact. Parang used those to monitor her condition in real-time.

The viewers would probably never know what really happened today, even on their deathbeds.

Why did she go to such lengths?

Of course, Parang isn’t an exhibitionist.

But nevertheless, Parang needed to test perception distortion on her own body.

After all, her ultimate goal was to apply perception distortion to the Kraken.

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