Chapter 81: Promise for the Future (1)

Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast

EP.81 Promise for the Future (1)

“Alright! That concludes today’s broadcast. In Korea, it’s… ah, 11 PM now. Have a good night. This has been Yu Parang.”

─Good night

─Bye bye

─Good night

With her now-familiar sign-off, Parang ended the broadcast.

Even she could tell that her broadcasts were becoming more skillful lately.

No matter what the subject, the feeling of moving forward was quite pleasant.

A faint smile spread across her face as she looked at the darkened screen.

Tap tap.

Diego, who was behind her, tapped Parang’s shoulder.

Parang quietly turned around and gave him a thumbs up.

“I’ll search alone. You must be very tired, go home.”

Parang also tapped Diego’s shoulder. Normally, she would have asked for help in recovering the Slayers’ bodies, but right now, Diego’s body must be under an unimaginable amount of strain.

It’s the penalty for using skills while in a giant form.

It’s best to send him home to rest. He’ll probably be aching all over for about four days.

‘I should send him some health food later.’

After Diego left, Parang stretched underwater and started surveying the surroundings.

‘The Bermuda Hive is quite small. I should be able to find it quickly.’

And so, some time passed,

And more time passed.

After a considerable amount of time had passed.

“Nnngh…”

Parang made a cute sound, crossing her arms in frustration.

‘No matter how much I search, I can’t find it…’

It’s been four hours since she started searching.

The Bermuda Hive is quite small to begin with, and nearly half of its volume is occupied by the gate. This amount of time should be more than enough to search the entire hive.

Yet, she couldn’t even find a shadow of the body, let alone the body itself.

‘At this point, should I consider it not here…?’

Parang, who had a pretty good track record in body searches so far, expected to find it without much trouble this time too, but it seems God doesn’t always smile upon her.

‘Ah, right.’

God is dead.

Not by Nietzsche, but by Hunter Han Siwoo.

And the newly deified Hunter Han Siwoo was also dragged into the sea and died.

If that eyeball in the sea was God…

‘Ugh.’

Parang thought it might be better if that one didn’t smile at her.

Well, anyway. Come to think of it, there wasn’t really a God to smile at Parang in the first place.

‘At this point, it really seems like it’s not here.’

This was Parang’s conclusion after even checking inside the barrels of the ritual weapons piled up next to the gate.

If it’s not found after searching this much, it’s not there.

Just as Parang was about to give up and head home,

‘Huh?’

Parang’s eyes caught a shape that was both very familiar and strange at the same time.

A peculiar appearance that made it hard to tell if it was a fish or not, like the epitome of the uncanny valley, as if it was left unfinished.

A bizarre T-shaped handle monster fish.

It was Capulus.

‘Why is that here…?’

Well, actually, it’s natural for a monster fish to be underwater, but still.

Parang slowly approached Capulus.

Usually, she always had urgent matters, or was tired, or annoyed, or for whatever reason, didn’t feel like observing it properly.

Today is different.

It’s as if some strange aversion in her heart had disappeared.

So Parang approached Capulus thinking, “That’s right! Today is the day all your secrets will be revealed, you rascal. I’m going to uncover everything from your family relations to your friendships, teacher-student relationships, and financial ties!”

And then…

Whirr-

Capulus rolled its eyes once to look at Parang,

Swoosh-

It turned around and started moving at a speed that was neither slow nor fast, but somehow very ambiguous.

‘Huh??’

Seeing this, a huge question mark appeared above Parang’s head with a bang.

What kind of movement is that? It’s not running away, nor is it attacking.

It seems like it’s trying to pretend it didn’t see her and move away… but no, it clearly saw her. They made eye contact.

After pondering for a bit, Parang made a decision,

‘Should I follow it?’

For now, it seemed there was nothing to lose by following it.

If things went well, she might find its habitat—no, since it’s not a living creature, that expression wouldn’t be appropriate. Rather, even if it sounds a bit odd, it would be more accurate to call it the place of manufacture, or perhaps the place of origin—and if not, she could just follow it around and observe.

Since it was revealed that Capulus is not a living being, the most plausible hypothesis proposed by Vertea is that it’s a ‘byproduct of a higher life form’.

So if Parang keeps following Capulus, she might even encounter that higher life form.

Even in the unlikely scenario that she was being lured right now, Parang had the confidence to single-handedly crush everything and escape gracefully.

And so, Parang and Capulus’s awkward joint swim began.

About 5 minutes later.

‘W-What… is this…?’

Parang was able to discover the corpse of Charlotte Aira, the ninth Slayer.

Her body was placed in a narrow space between a small depression in the ground and a barricade.

The gap was so small that even Capulus couldn’t enter, so it’s no wonder Parang hadn’t found it before.

Parang looked back and forth between the corpse and Capulus with a quite shocked expression.

‘What on earth is going on here…?’

Regardless, Capulus stared blankly at Parang in front of the corpse, then,

Woong-

It turned around and leisurely disappeared somewhere.

“No, why?”

Only then did Parang understand why the protagonists in web novels often talk to themselves.

When faced with an utterly bewildering situation, one can’t help but speak without realizing it.

Parang began to chew over what had just happened, completely disregarding the corpse.

In her mind, well over a hundred possibilities poured out, but they only left hundreds of questions before disappearing again. None of them became meaningful deductions.

No, except for just one.

‘Did it… help me?’

“Capulus? Me?”

…Why?

If you just look at the appearance, it’s perfectly like that, but, no, why?

More importantly, how?

As far as Parang knows, no deep-sea creature has the intelligence to figure out that Parang is looking for the Slayers’ corpses, find both the corpse and Parang, and then guide Parang to the corpse.

If there were a creature with that level of intelligence…

‘Ugh, my head hurts.’

Then the situation would become quite complicated.

The theory that ‘humans made it and are controlling it’ doesn’t make sense.

The only one who knows that Parang is looking for the Slayers’ corpses is Sailo, and Parang doesn’t think Silo would have made something like this.

‘Could it be the government?’

Unlike the Association, where information is transparent thanks to Seo Sunwoo’s tight grip, Parang doesn’t know anything about the World Government.

Come to think of it, she realized she hadn’t paid any attention to the World Government’s movements lately.

In fact, it was the World Government that really threatened Parang.

Well, it’s not really a big deal, as there’s been no news from the World Government lately.

They used to send assassination teams and such, but nowadays there’s none of that either.

Judging by their outward appearance, they seem to know nothing about the deep sea or monster fishs.

But… still, the idea that the World Government created Capulus to help Parang find the corpses…

‘That’s too much of a delusion, even for me.’

That’s going a bit too far.

The conclusion is, I don’t know!

‘The mysteries just keep piling up…’

Parang looked at the corpse in front of her with an expression that now seemed bored.

‘This is quite surprising.’

Charlotte’s corpse was surprisingly well-preserved.

Not only were there no visible wounds, but even her clothes were intact.

If she had seen this anywhere other than the deep sea floor, she would have mistaken it for someone just sleeping.

‘What if… what if she’s still alive…?’

Remembering past events, Parang approached cautiously, tiptoeing, but…

Thump thump.

It’s just a corpse.

Parang pondered for a moment whether this was fortunate or unfortunate, but concluded it was unfortunate since being alive is better than being dead.

As she was tending to the corpse and glancing at the face, she thought, “That Han Siwoo, he really was born with luck with women.”

The beauty emanating from her face, piercing through even glasses, that evil item that mars the beauty of all things in the world.

A slender figure and arms stretching out refreshingly. And at the end of those arms, beautiful, delicate hands clenched into fists…

‘Huh, fists?’

Finding it strange, Parang gently opened the clenched hand, and inside was a ring.

A beautiful ring with golden threads intricately flowing inside a transparent band.

This is a situation where even a passing monster fish would understand that an artifact has been found.

As Parang once again rummaged through the library in her head, wondering what on earth this could be, recalling her knowledge of the original work,

‘Ah.’

She knows what it is, but doesn’t really know what it is.

What that means is, she knows the name of this artifact, but doesn’t know what function it has.

Hunter Han Siwoo only created ‘rings’ once throughout the entire original work.

It was the day before his ascension.

Parang doesn’t know all the artifacts that appeared in that long novel.

However, there’s one sentence that Hunter Han Siwoo often said.

“Someday, when we overcome all these trials and reach the conclusion, that’s when we’ll make the rings.”

And as far as Parang knows, Hunter Han Siwoo kept this promise, and only on the eve of his ascension did he create rings and give them to all the female characters.

The name he gave to the rings was ‘Happy Ending’.

It’s a sad thing to think about what happened after that.

‘Come to think of it, I think the Slayers might have been wearing something like rings on their fingers.’

She can’t remember exactly. A transparent ring with flowing golden threads. It’s not something that would be visible during intense combat, is it?

Parang resolved to take a closer look this time.

The problem is that the function of this ring was never described in the story even once.

Parang is a case of reincarnation right after seeing the ending, so she didn’t get to see the speculations of the reader community.

It’s truly a regrettable situation.

Parang, who had been lost in her thoughts for a moment, rubbed her eyes.

After all, she too was a reader of the novel, wasn’t she?

Remembering the poignant ending makes her nose tingle.

‘Right. To ensure that all of that wasn’t in vain.’

She has to do what needs to be done.

She gathered Charlotte’s corpse and rose to the surface.