Chapter 9
Parang’s ‘Route Setting’ skill becomes increasingly precise as she descends into the deep sea.
Normally, she wouldn’t go this far, but right now, she was constantly activating this skill as she moved forward.
After all, if she blindly followed and something she really shouldn’t see pops up, it would be quite a predicament.
Well, underwater, Parang’s vision is much wider than any camera, so if things go south, she was prepared to blame connection issues and end the broadcast. She had already informed Yuna, so she’d handle it well above water.
Fortunately for both Parang and the viewers, there was no situation where the camera suddenly cut out.
Parang had assessed that the likelihood of such an occurrence was slim since Galecus typically nests in remote locations.
There was no need to enter a magic area like ‘Hive’.
Eventually, she would show those places little by little, but… not today.
Soon, Parang’s eyes caught sight of Galecus’s nest. The current depth was 2.3 km.
Before long, the camera also started catching the nest, and the chat reactions intensified.
Parang came to a stop, and Galecus darted into the ‘nest’.
Though she had lost the fish she was chasing, neither Parang nor the viewers cared at all.
After all, Parang knew she was going to catch something anyway, and the viewers…
– What is that?
– How is something like this here?
– What the heck is this??
– Amazing deep sea;;
They were witnessing the identity of the ‘nest’ they had only imagined in their heads.
What unfolded before their eyes was a gigantic… tube that appeared to be about 100 meters long.
Yes, the kind of tube that contains toothpaste. It was just floating in the air, or rather, in the water, staying in place. However, the brand name or company name that would usually be printed on such a tube was nowhere to be found. Just pure white.
“I don’t know the exact identity either, but once you exceed a depth of 2 km, ridiculously large objects like that can exist. Hunters of the seafloor call them ‘Objects’.”
– That’s seriously bizarre.
– I’m getting chills in real-time too.
– I thought it would be some kind of cave when you said ‘nest’…
Viewers who had expected just coral or a gigantic underwater cave couldn’t hide their astonishment.
“Caves are not a common dwelling for monster fish. Unless it’s a really large cave, monster fish can’t even enter, and in large enough caves, the top predators already occupy them.”
Strictly speaking, they weren’t the apex, but it seemed better to call them that for various reasons.
– Apex predator, damn it;;
– Isn’t that thing the apex??
– What rank does it fall in?
“Well… in terms of monsters, I’d say it’s about between a goblin and an orc.”
– I never want to dive again.
– What kind of place is the ocean…
– That’s below an orc? Are you out of your mind?
The chat was in an uproar. Parang smiled with satisfaction.
She had seen the comment stating someone would never dive again. She felt like she was doing it right.
With her enthusiasm boosted, a noticeable question popped up.
– But how is the water color the same as near 1 km?
– ? Shouldn’t it be all black?
It’s true. In fact, the water surrounding Galecus’s nest was even brighter. Even though sunlight couldn’t reach, the area was filled with dark blue instead of black. It was so bright that even without special lighting, the silhouette of the ‘nest’ was clearly captured on screen.
“I’m not exactly sure why, but once you exceed a depth of 2 km, brightness loses its meaning. There are places that are much darker at shallower depths and locations that are incredibly bright just below the surface, even though they are much deeper.”
Parang also had no good explanation for this. While she could catch monster fish, the supernatural phenomena occurring in the ‘monster layer’ wouldn’t reveal any answers no matter how deeply she investigated.
– Now they’re biting into the laws of physics too?
– Scientists might love it? Maybe not the grad students though.
– You bastard, take that back right now.
– With something like that stuck underwater, the laws of physics don’t mean much…
Just like the term “adaptable animals,” the chatters were accepting the scene as it was.
Nobody thought it was manipulated. After all, from the moment they dived into the ocean until now, this journey was simply unbelievable to be a setup.
“Then today, I’ll go inside there for a quick look, catch Galecus, and wrap up the broadcast.”
– I absolutely can’t handle that level of calm…
– Is it real that she’s talking about going for a walk in the neighborhood versus catching Galecus?
– For her, isn’t it about the same difficulty level to just go for a walk or catch Galecus?
– Now that you mention it…
Regardless of the chatter, Parang continued explaining as she entered the tube.
“Galecus is a monster fish that is extremely picky about choosing its nest. There must be no predators nearby, and it needs long, narrow spaces while having a place to store its catches.”
– Teacher, it’s dark and scary.
– It really gets scary when it suddenly goes dark.
– Why isn’t Galecus glowing all of a sudden? So creepy.
Parang suddenly realized her mistake. Unlike herself, the viewers couldn’t see the scene inside the nest. While it was bright outside, it was a bit dark inside.
“Galecus doesn’t glow inside its nest. It only emits light when searching for food or a mate.”
Parang turned on her special lighting made by Yuna, and it was so incredibly bright that the surrounding scenery began to be captured clearly on camera.
Then the chat went wild again.
– What’s that on the left, what the hell?
– It’s weirder than I expected, damn.
– What’s that on the right, you crazy?
– It’s like watching a horror movie.
– Is there something up front? Am I the only one seeing this?
– Are you all watching different broadcasts? LMAO.
– There are bizarre things everywhere, what do we do?
Just as the comments said, there were all sorts of things inside Galecus’s nest.
Something that looked like white bones, bizarre green clumps of slime, thick black sludge covering the walls, and faintly visible parts of Galecus in the distance.
The overwhelming sight, almost filling a 100-meter tunnel, made the viewers watching the broadcast tremble involuntarily.
Regardless of that, Parang continued her explanation.
“As you can see, non-glowing Galecus appears white. These nearby things, um… I’ll have to explain those in a bit.”
She added that since it might be hard to concentrate with those things right in front of them.
“I can’t catch anything in here since it’s too packed, so I’ll pull them out first and explain one by one. Ah, before that.”
Then she slowly moved forward with the lighting turned on.
“Not all monster fish are like this, but Galecus has degenerated eyes like most deep-sea fish. They need to operate in darkness to find food.”
Parang reached right in front of Galecus and continued her explanation.
“As you can see, Galecus doesn’t move once it sets a position inside its nest. Earlier, it was shaking its head around too much while swimming, so I couldn’t show you this area, but now I’d like to show you.”
Then, she turned off the light, detached the light source from her body, and held it in her hand, bringing it in front of Galecus’s head.
And click.
Most fish don’t have eyelids, so they can’t close their eyes.
The moment she turned on the light, everyone beyond the screen locked eyes with Galecus’s empty black sockets.
– Ugh, damn, that startled me.
– That’s seriously disgusting.
“Ah, sorry.”
– It doesn’t look like you’re really sorry.
– I can smell Yuna’s scent from this stranger hunter…
To be honest, she wasn’t that sorry. Parang just wanted to tease them a bit.
“Alright, now that I’ve shown you what I needed to, let’s pull it out of the nest.”
– Saying ‘I’ll pull it out’ in front of a 70m monster is just hilarious.
– The scariest part is that she’s going to do something no matter what.
Parang began rummaging around the nest. She was aiming to find Galecus’s eggs.
Of course, in the process, all sorts of disgusting things inside the nest appeared and disappeared on screen. The viewers were having a tough time.
– Teacher, I don’t know what you’re looking for, but please turn off the light while searching… I know you can do it…
In fact, she could’ve found them even with the light off. It was just her mischievous side acting up again.
Parang had started feeling the fun of broadcasting.
Initially, she had started with the sense of duty to keep people away from danger, but now she enjoyed that every word and action evoked emotions in the viewers.
‘I can control emotions…!’
She felt that way. It might seem a bit twisted, but hey, if she’s happy, isn’t that what matters?
In any case, after rummaging around the nest for about 5 minutes while already knowing the location, Parang finally picked up Galecus’s egg.
“I found it. This is Galecus’s egg.”
If you’ve seen salmon roe or flying fish roe, you’d know, but fish eggs are quite different from typical land animal eggs.
– This… is an egg?
– I never imagined it would look like this.
– What the hell did I know about eggs?
Let alone monster fish’s eggs. The egg that Parang found was a long pouch-type sac.
Holding the sac in front of her face, Parang said, “This is the egg,” and started squishing it playfully.
Then the sac wobbled like a water balloon. With the light on, the light shone through, and the insides were clearly moving around.
– Ughhh.
– Eww.
– This visual is really disgusting.
– I was eating while watching this!!
“Uh, sorry to those who were eating.”
– But what was that white goo that flowed out of the hole earlier?
– Oh…
– What the hell are you talking about, you crazy person?
“Oh, that was the pre-laying eggs. After forming the eggs with that liquid in its belly, when it’s ready to hatch to a certain extent, it lays them this way.”
– So what are you going to do with this?
– Most monster fish can instinctively feel the condition of their eggs. They can sense them breaking or hatching even from a distance. When you want to draw certain monster fish out, this method is the best.”
Parang said with a playful smile as she took out a net.
She planned to bring out a bunch of eggs and go outside. If she’s capturing them, might as well wipe them all out.
Whether or not she had studied stock investments, Galecus had divided the eggs into several piles to store them.
Of course, it was useless in front of the ruthless monster-fish exterminator, Yu Parang.
Parang swept all of Galecus’s eggs into the net after rummaging the entire nest.
“This should be enough. I’ll head out now.”
Being at the end of a 100m tunnel took a while to exit. She swam slowly to avoid waking Galecus.
And then outside.
– Now, what are we supposed to do, teacher?
– I’m emotionally prepared to accept whatever she does now.
“Now, I’m going to burst the eggs. Then Galecus, who doesn’t know that the eggs outside are compromised, will rush out in anger.”
– I expected it but, damn.
– Galecus < - this thing is starting to seem pitiful.
"It's not just one, but all of them, so Galecus is likely to rush out as soon as they burst. Since it might startle you if it suddenly appears, I’ll count to three before popping them."
- Thank you... thank you...
- I was so scared I wasn’t even looking at the screen, so I’m glad.
"One—”
Having counted to “one,” Parang casually tossed the net at the entrance of the nest.
About fifty eggs simultaneously went pop, causing purple slime to spread out.
"Ah!"
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kwahrrrrrrrrr—!!!!!
The camera angle capturing the entrance of the tube was suddenly filled with Galecus's body.
It resembled a train passing in front of the camera.
- You said one, two, three, right?
- Oh my god, what just happened?
- I spilled my coffee out of surprise, agh.
- I believed, I believed, I believed!
"My hands slipped."
With a tone that sounded like she was saying, ‘The weather is nice today.’
Parang held back a laugh, her smile almost reaching her ears.
"I apologize, heh."
- You definitely just held back a laugh, right?
"Nope."
She had indeed.