Chapter 65: Let There Be Light (3)

Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast – 65

EP.65 Let There Be Light (3)

In general, the sea is as diverse in its environments as the land, and accordingly, the ecosystems within each sea vary greatly.

Just as cod caught in the North Sea aren’t found off the coast of Hawaii, and fish from Philippine coral reefs aren’t caught in the East Sea.

However, this doesn’t apply to the monster layer.

Familiar faces can be encountered anywhere on Earth, at any depth.

Unless it’s a special environment like an Object or a Hive.

To draw a comparison, one could cite the monsters that emerge from gates.

You can encounter goblins and orcs in the deserts of California or the jungles of the Amazon.

And in special environments, like dungeons, you can find unique monsters along with goblins and orcs.

Well, goblins and orcs that come out of gates are transported directly from their original habitats to Earth, so it’s not strange to find them anywhere, and they often die quickly if they land in places like deserts.

So, it’s understandable that monsters like Bellua or Brachium are found all over the globe.

But it’s hard to understand when something that originally existed on Earth mutates into a monster fish.

In these cases, it seems almost random.

“This is an example.”

Parang tapped a 20-meter-long clownfish monster next to her.

As something presumed to be food touched its body, it quickly closed its split belly to try to swallow Parang.

Parang easily dodged it and inserted a harpoon vertically into the closing cut, continuing her explanation.

“As you know, clownfish live in the coral reefs of tropical seas. It’s absurd for them to exist in the Drake Passage, which is classified as part of the Antarctic Ocean.”

Moreover, clownfish typically live in shallow waters less than 100 meters deep.

Since the monster layer starts at a depth of 700 meters, a “clownfish monster swimming in the Drake Hive” shouldn’t exist, logically speaking.

“But here it is, swimming right in front of us. Does this make you feel anything?”

─Uh…

─It’s really mysterious

─The sea is really dangerous, huh?

“Good job.”

─Haha, damn lol

“Continuing with the explanation, this monster pretends to be a corpse by splitting its belly and then eats the monsters that come to feed on its flesh. If you look inside here…”

Parang grabbed both sides of the split belly and forcibly tore it open.

Perhaps she tore it more than its limit, as black blood gushed out from inside.

─She’s at it again…

─Did you tear another monster apart, Parang?

“No, this is just how it is.”

Parang was known for her habit of tearing and killing monster fishes. How could she know the exact limit of the clownfish monster’s split?

Vertea might know, but Parang was ignorant in this area, so such minor accidents happened quite frequently.

‘Ah, it’s broken… Well, I did use it a lot.’

This was how monster fishes were treated.

Anyway, the slaughter broadcast continued in this manner.

Whenever she encountered a new fish during her exploration, she would explain and then slaughter it. If it was a monster she didn’t know, a live curiosity show would unfold.

“Gill or palate… I want to split both, but I can’t decide, so let’s take a vote.”

It was simple, but the viewers’ reactions were overwhelmingly positive. If you had ever seen a tuna dissection show in real life, you could understand why this broadcast was strangely captivating.

Moreover, this “tuna” was tens of meters long.

‘Tuna, huh…’

Parang pondered the possibility of doing an monster fish mukbang as a special event.

It was unlikely that Oceanos hadn’t attempted to cook monster fishes during all this time.

The distinction between edible and inedible monster fishes had become quite clear, and for some, there were even standardized preparation methods and recommended recipes available.

‘I should try it if I get the chance.’

Which monster fish should she prepare? And how should she cook it? Sashimi? Grilled? Steamed?

The mere thought made her mouth water. Surprisingly, the tasty monster fishes were really delicious.

Given their level of activity, their flesh was incomparably firmer and more umami-rich than that of ordinary fish…

‘Whoops.’

Parang quickly refocused her mind, which had drifted to thoughts of a dining table.

‘Stay alert. Stay alert.’

Crino was inside the Hive.

What would she do if she let her guard down like last time and was hit with another area-wide mental attack?

Fortunately, Parang had learned from the Brachium Shock incident.

‘Maybe it’s time to wrap up the broadcast.’

Parang was currently circling the square-shaped Hive from the outside, spiraling inward in her exploration to minimize the chances of encountering Crino at the center.

And indeed, as she moved closer to the center, the number of monsters exhibiting strange behaviors increased.

Unnatural and irregular movements.

The number of monsters flailing aimlessly as if confused in place was growing exponentially.

To the viewers, it might seem like ‘Ah, another monster is just being a monster.’ But Parang knew better.

‘These monsters are not behaving normally at all.’

She had even seen a water snake monster tie itself into knots earlier.

‘Let’s catch just one more and then end the broadcast.’

Having made up her mind, Parang began searching for her last prey.

‘That’s the one I caught last time, and that one has no impact…’

Parang had somehow incorporated broadcasting elements into her calculations. Previously, it was like a scary public service announcement, showing one monster fish and saying “Don’t go in.”

Now, it had become a real “broadcast.”

Anyway, she spotted another monster.

It was a type of shark-like fish, commonly referred to as a “dolmok” or “mulkogi” in Korean, which had mutated into a monster fish.

The original dolmok was so bizarre that it could be called a “deep-sea phobia inducer.”

To be exact, it wasn’t just grotesque, but rather a fish that existed at the boundary between life and non-life, giving off an unsettling feeling.

The dolmok’s grotesqueness came from its enormous mouth, which took up about 70% of its body length.

When its mouth was closed, it looked like a normal shark, but when it opened its mouth, it resembled a giant pipe with eyes and a tail attached.

Its unsettling appearance didn’t match its relatively shallow habitat, and sometimes novice divers would be shocked to encounter a dolmok in the water, leading to accidents.

However, like many fish with fearsome appearances, the dolmok was a harmless fish that fed on plankton.

Its suction power when opening its mouth wasn’t that strong either. The rumors about divers being sucked in and dying instantly were all false.

Of course, that was the case for the dolmok.

But when it mutated into a monster fish, the story changed completely.

“I’ll show you how it changes.”

Parang turned the camera towards the Hinus.

It was no longer possible to call the Hinus a fish; it was unnecessary to explain how much it had changed.

Its body was torn apart, as if someone had forcibly turned the fish’s skin inside out and stuck it onto a wire mesh.

The scales’ color, which happened to be similar to human skin, only added to the grotesqueness.

The degenerated eyes, which had lost their focus and only had white pupils, stared straight ahead, giving off an eerie feeling, like a corpse.

The fins had also degenerated, with the tail fin missing and only the dorsal and anal fins remaining, barely clinging to their existence.

Moreover, the violent suction power of the monster fish was a far cry from the harmless nature of the original fish.

The Hinus was swimming just above the ground, or rather, the grass.

“I’ll show you how it swims without fins in a bit. For now…”

Parang knew what kind of impression the Hinus would make on first-time viewers, so she paused to let them observe quietly.

The Hinus was sucking in the surrounding water with great force.

The grass in its path was almost being uprooted and pulled towards its mouth, while small and large monster fishes were continuously being swept into its maw.

Then, as if passing straight through its body, they were expelled from the rear, shredded into hundreds of pieces as if they had been ground by sharp blades.

The crimson liquid continuously gushing out from the back of the Hinus needed no further explanation.

Feeling that this was enough, Parang slowly approached the side of the Hinus.

“The Hinus has almost no fat or muscle. Just 10 centimeters below the skin, you reach the skeleton.”

Considering that it was a 70-meter-long shark, it was almost as if the skeleton was right beneath the skin.

To prove this, Parang inserted a harpoon into the Hinus’s skin and lifted the flesh.

“See, there’s the bone.”

As she said, there was indeed a bone below, but it wasn’t like a normal fish with ribs extending below the spine.

“The Hinus has only three bones in its entire body. The main cylindrical skeleton, the support, and the propeller.”

In other words, this cylindrical body was made of a single solid bone.

Clearly, it wasn’t the form of a normal living monster.

The chat messages started coming in faster.

It was probably because Parang was deliberately not showing them what they wanted to see.

─ What does the front look like?

─ Show us the front shot

─ Damn, she won’t show it unless we hit ‘that’ a certain number of times

─ Rock

─ Damn, the sea is really dangerous

─ Rock

─ Now

No, Parang hadn’t intended to tease them that much.

She felt a bit awkward.

It was probably because she got carried away and explained unnecessary details.

“No, I’ll show you. Calm down. Why are you suddenly…”

─ Extreme

─ Wow

─ Damn, this is it

─ Extreme

“That’s actually a good idea. I’ll consider implementing it in the future.”

The chat messages skyrocketed, as if piercing through the sky.

Since it wasn’t really Parang’s concern, she lightly ignored the chat and moved to the front of the Hinus.

“Just to let you know in advance, you absolutely cannot try this. I can withstand it because I’m me, but an ordinary person would be sucked in immediately.”

─ You don’t have to tell us, damn

─ Like showing a nuclear test video and saying ‘Don’t try this at home’ lol

The inside of the Hinus was essentially completely hollow.

You could see from the front through the mouth to the back.

However, there was one foreign object in the center of the empty body.

What the hell is that inside?

Inside the Hinus, a propeller was spinning.

And it was sharp, like the blade of a blender.

The various monster fishes sucked into the Hinus’s mouth were instantly shredded into pieces of meat as they passed through the propeller, and a few of them were being absorbed through a hole behind the propeller.

In other words, the Hinus was in the process of feeding.

Strictly speaking, the Hinus was always in a state of feeding, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Parang stopped talking and blankly watched the scene for a moment.

It was for dramatic effect.

‘3… 2… 1…’

“As you can see, this is how the Hinus feeds. The spinning propeller you see there is a bone that has evolved to be sharp. It grinds the prey to make it easier to consume and also serves to propel the Hinus.”

Parang then moved to the rear of the Hinus.

She was immediately covered in a multitude of blood, but she nonchalantly purified all of it.

“Now, if you look here, this is the support bone that keeps the propeller attached to the body. It’s hollow on the inside and filled with nerve bundles. I’ll cut it open for you.”

─ What?

─ Oh no…

Ignoring the reactions, Parang took out her harpoon and plunged it deeply into the support bone, then twisted it to create a hole.

“These thick things you see inside are all nerves. If we do this…”

Snap, snap, snap.

“By cutting them like this, the propeller can no longer move.”

Just as Parang said, after she cut through what appeared to be nerve bundles, the furiously spinning propeller came to a halt as if it had never been moving.

“If left like this, it won’t be able to perform metabolic functions and will die on its own. Now, if you look at this propeller, you can see the muscle bundles over here…”

Thus, by Parang’s hand, another monster fish met a gruesome end today.

If they had laws, Parang would have been an entity subject to immediate execution upon capture.

“Alright! That’s it for today’s broadcast. Do not go diving, and if you do, only during the day! Do not descend below 500 meters depth. Don’t follow anything you see in the water, and also…”

Regardless, today was another chaotic day. Parang’s broadcast had come to an end once again.