NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
Parang is a reincarnator. After reading the ending of her favorite novel and the author’s note, she went to sleep for a night and—voilà!—she finds herself in the world of that novel.
It’s a very typical reincarnation scenario.
But as we all know, even if someone reincarnates in a standard way, it doesn’t mean their life is going to follow the same script.
Upon awakening her past life memories at age 15, she took some time to carefully review the original story she had read.
And she thought to herself.
“As long as I don’t get entangled with the main character, I’m good!”
The hunter story she was reading was incredibly classic. Every plot point and event flowed exactly like a cliché—this was the ultimate representation of the genre. So predictable that you could guess the ending right when the episode started.
Yet, it was popular because the author wrote action scenes exceptionally well.
It wasn’t a “masterpiece that overturned the genre of novels,” but it was perfect for killing time.
And as is customary with epic hunter stories, the foes the main character’s party has to face become increasingly unimaginable.
But they never enter the water. (That was Parang’s only complaint about the novel.)
So if Parang were to awkwardly join the main character’s party? Instant death. Guaranteed early exit.
It was only natural for Parang to choose to live her dream life in the ocean instead of jumping into danger.
And fortunately for her, the Earth remained relatively peaceful until the end. The areas that transformed into “fields” were merely parts of Northern Africa, including the Sahara Desert, and parts of Southern South America.
Thanks to the main character forming a harem with hunters from around the world, most countries had adequate defense.
So, as long as Parang hid out somewhere in South Korea, she wouldn’t be swept into any original events that would lead to death.
Moreover, she reincarnated as an orphan, making it perfectly convenient for her to do what she wanted. Nothing could stop her.
Whether she knew it or not, the status screen had even offered her a choice of S-rank skills since she was reincarnated anyway, but…
“I can be underwater for 24 hours, so does my gender really matter?”
Oh dear. That’s unfortunate.
And time flowed on, and soon enough—ta-da!—it was June 11th!
The day the original novel reached its ending.
Kak! Cheek! Brrrr…
Parang cracked open a beer and set it on the side table next to her sofa, turning on her phone to check out YouTube.
Immediately, a LIVE video appeared among the top recommendations.
[Silo Exclusive Coverage – Slayers Ascension Ceremony LIVE]
What in the world? The original closes with the main character, Han Siwoo the Hunter, and his entire harem ascending to become gods.
Watching this made Parang feel a peculiar sensation.
The feelings she had toward the main character’s party were akin to how one might feel towards Queen Elizaveta.
That is, she didn’t care for them at all.
In the beginning, she worried that the original storyline might get twisted and scoured internet communities, but from a year in onwards, she completely stopped paying attention.
Still, she felt that she should see the ending of the original story with her own eyes and decided to watch the live stream as a favor to herself.
There were indeed things that needed to be confirmed.
For some reason, they stood over a vast ocean where no land was visible. The only thing nearby was a relay helicopter dispatched from Silo. Well, Parang knew the reason.
And just as it was described in the novel. A pillar of light came crashing down from the heavens, and beams of light erupted from the bodies of all the Slayers as they began to rise into the sky.
How high did they ascend? Just then, the main character’s body split apart messily, perhaps due to the relay from Silo, the video quality and visuals were stunning. How much preparation had gone into this?
Finally, the bodies of the heroines also began to tear apart. This was the process of shedding their human forms to acquire divine bodies.
In the process, various artifacts, skill scrolls, and possessions belonging to the 15 members of the main character’s group fell into the sea.
This was why they ascended in the middle of the ocean. It was to prevent the artifacts, each crafted by the main character and at divine artifact level, from being released into the world.
At last, the final heroine ascended into the clouds, and the heavens closed—the end.
Parang touched her forehead and sighed deeply before turning off her phone.
Her mind was a jumble.
In times like this, hobbies are the remedy. Surprisingly, besides fishing, diving, sleeping underwater, Parang had another hobby—drawing.
She was a painter in her past life. The reason she wasn’t a diver was purely due to circumstances.
Parang shot up from the sofa and moved to her studio.
Giiing—swoosh.
The door to her workspace across from her bedroom opened with a futuristic mechanical sound.
According to her taste, her home had a base of white with blue neon accents here and there, giving it a rather futuristic décor.
Naturally, since her house was right by the ocean, it looked stunning in photographs.
“Hmmm…”
Entering her studio, she was greeted by countless paintings on display.
Of course, they were all of water, the sea, fish, and monster fish.
From simple fish to paintings that were just completely blue, even monsters that made one wonder if they actually lived on Earth, were frequently found.
Parang sat in front of her easel in the middle of the room and picked up her brush.
She was planning to finish the painting she had been working on previously.
The subject was Galecus, a monster fish transformed by the underwater gate’s influence, resembling a long-bodied fish known for swimming vertically in a standing position.
In the endlessly similar underwater surroundings, it was nearly impossible to tell which direction it was swimming, which made it easy to end up in the deep sea if you followed it.
That was how Galecus hunted its prey. It dazzles with bright colors to attract attention, then entices small fish or monster fish into its lair.
Its appearance was so beautiful that it was the monster fish Parang had painted the most.
And after a long period of silence. Only the sound of her brush echoed through the gallery, before Parang placed the brush down with a thud.
Looking at the clock, it was already four in the morning. She had spent a solid six hours painting.
By this time, she was starting to feel sleepy. Not due to her superhuman body, but because she took a nap underwater earlier.
In fact, that had almost become her everyday routine. Parang’s lifestyle was utterly out of whack.
If possible, she would love to sleep underwater at night, but the night sea is far more dangerous than the sea during the day.
While she could enter it if she wanted, it wasn’t quite suitable for sleeping.
Giiing—swoosh.
Parang stepped into the bedroom opposite the gallery.
As you might expect, there was no bed. Instead, there was a bed-shaped aquarium dug out of the floor, complete with blankets and a pillow.
You might wonder what will happen to the cleanliness if she sleeps in the same water every day, right?
Surprisingly enough, among Parang’s skills, she had an ability that purifies the area within a 5-meter radius while submerged.
Parang had used this skill only once, about half a year ago, to gather results from a ground dungeon for an A-rank hunter promotion exam.
She had entered the undead dungeon while submerged in a mobile tank with party members.
It was such an outrageous act that it heated up the internet for a time.
Even now, if you type “Gyeongju Undead Cave” into the search bar, the top related search will be “Gyeongju Undead Cave Aquarium Girl.”
Aside from the bed, her room featured a dark blue mood light and a 24-hour loop of nighttime ocean ASMR.
She truly was crazy for the ocean.
Regardless, Parang had a deep sleep and was awoken at noon the next day.
Then she repeated her daily routine. Catching some fish to grill and getting a good nap in the sea.
She thought it would take some time for the aftermath to roll in.
And after a week passed,
YouTube exploded.
[Three Diving Tips for Beginners]
[Underwater Hunter Vlog: Let’s Explore 300m Lightly!]
[The World’s First?! Slayers Ascension Location Revealed!!]
[(Ad) New Frigid Diver Academy One-Month Free Course Review]
[vlog | Scuba Diving | East Sea | Pohang City | Diving Beginner Day 1]
News.
[The World is Currently in a ‘Diving Craze’… Why are hunters heading to the sea?]
[Silo, “Submarine Business Promising” Announcement… Is it really?]
[I heard it helps with weight loss and lowers blood sugar levels… “Activating beige fat” underwater sports]
[(Exclusive Interview) Meet the only twenty underwater hunters nationwide]
Community.
[Can an A-rank physical-enhancement hunter dive?] [3]
[I found treasure just off the coast LOL] [25]
[Scuba Diving Day 1 Review] [6]
[You crazy people want to go in there?] [9]
[Used Market Diving Suit! Damn it.] [10]
Parang opened the community and read several eye-catching posts.
[Can an A-rank physical-enhancement hunter dive?]
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
Screw this. I’m an A-rank physical enhancement hunter, but watching everyone search for treasure in the sea makes me so frustrated I can’t help it. I tried it in my bathtub today and can hold my breath for 30 minutes.
– Can a person last 30 minutes underwater without any gear?
SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1VXJCNEd0WGJQRnYxZm9MeE1pUytpaWN6UGI3UGVXd3FyeEoxdlVlODdxOA
– It varies by region. It’s tough in the East Sea, but super doable in the West Sea.
– Ah, I live in Ulsan.
[You crazy people want to go in there?]
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
(A GIF of dropping a stone into the endlessly blue water. The stone falls endlessly until it becomes indistinct and eventually disappears.)
You’re going to dive into a place like this to treasure hunt? No matter how good the artifacts are, are you out of your mind? I prefer living on sturdy ground.
– I want to go in so badly! Finding an artifact diving would be worth a month’s earnings.
– You’re scared?
– How do you even go in there?
– The photos are terrible, but most people dive in the West Sea, so you don’t see these kinds of views. At most, you cap out at a 50m depth, anyways. Most physical-enhancement hunters can swim there bare-bodied.
– For a killer view like that, how deep do you have to go?
– Assuming the water is super clear, about 100m?
– Do you have the ability to go in?
– I backed out after seeing photos, that’s terrifying.
[Used Market Diving Suit! Damn it!]
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
(A photo of a latex suit designed for specific diving activities, featuring zippers for smooth usage.)
Damn, you dirty bastard, why are you giving me this ridiculous latex suit when I asked for a diving suit? I’m seriously coming to find you, you damn bastard.
– LOL!
– LOL, what an idiot.
– How could you fall for that?
– Why the hell did the seller even have that?
– Guild optimized intelligence. LOL!
– Is it a women’s suit?
– Oh, 10,000.
– What do you mean by 10,000, you crazy bastard?
– What the hell is this guy talking about? LOL!
The world entered a diving boom.
Of course, it wasn’t that people universally went crazy and were diving into the ocean to find buried artifacts they were entirely unfamiliar with.
In reality, among the 99% of those who saw the ascension on the news, most just felt a bittersweet loss over the sight of those precious artifacts sinking into the ocean.
However, history has long proven the fact that it only takes 1% of the crazies to change the world.
It all started with an internet broadcaster and hunter living in Incheon.
He was a B-rank hunter of physical enhancement and, after seeing the news, he came up with the content idea of “Search for Artifacts Buried in the Deep Sea! First Live Submarine Experience in the Country.”
He wasn’t really serious about finding artifacts; he just wanted to grab some attention. He did some research and saw that the sea off the coast of Incheon was shallow and seemed safe.
During the live stream that was supposed to pull in some attention…
“Uh, um? What’s this?”
He stumbled upon a B-rank artifact that appeared to be a relic of a sunken cargo ship from a long time ago.
This made headlines in the news and started a snowball effect of rumors, leading people from across the globe to attempt diving.
“Is this real?!”
“Holy, is that real?”
“Is that box I’m looking at right now?”
And indeed, some of those individuals managed to uncover treasures sleeping under the ocean, bringing forth the dawn of a diving era.
Even artifacts that weren’t from legends turned out to be money-makers.
People grasped that fact.
The underwater world was no longer a void of profit.
It became an unmatched opportunity, a treasure trove of hidden wealth waiting to be uncovered.
A genuine blue ocean.
Parang’s worries also multiplied.
Because she knew.
Not only treasures lie in the depths of the ocean.
There are horrors that no ordinary human should ever encounter, monsters that defy imagination.
Brrrr—
Under the water, she quietly closed her eyes.