10
Chapter 10
ROOOOAR!!!! ROAR!!!! ROOOOOOAR!!!!
"It looks like it's furious."
- I'd be furious too.
That was true. But Galecus wasn't a viewer, nor was it Parang. She decided not to care.
"I think I've shown you everything I can with Galecus. After I catch it, the nest... did you all get a good enough look at it earlier?"
- Yes yes yes yes yes yes
- I understand perfectly.
- You don't need to go back in!!
Having already suffered multiple times while scraping the eggs together, the viewers didn't want any more explanations about the nest.
"I wanted to show you around slowly if possible, but if that's the case, it can't be helped."
Parang looked at Galecus, which was frantically tearing through the ocean in the distance trying to find her.
- Is it okay to just leave it like that?
"Of course not. It's fine now because it's blinded by rage, but the moment it regains its senses, it will track me down."
Having said her piece, Parang opened the Cartridge on her left arm and pulled something out.
"Yuna, you can switch the broadcast to cam 3, right?"
'Cam 3?'
Yuna tilted her head in confusion but switched the broadcast to cam 3 anyway.
It was the camera Parang had taken out of her Cartridge.
When she placed it at the entrance of the nest, a vacuum suction cup automatically engaged, securing the camera in place.
The feed, which had been showing Parang's point of view until now, suddenly switched to show the area in front of the nest's entrance.
Then, Parang's face filled the screen as she leaned in close to check if the camera was properly attached.
It was what you'd call an extreme close-up.
- She looks pretty even from this angle.
- Wow...
- But why the sudden screen switch?
"The upcoming battle will just make you dizzy if you watch it in first person. Stay there and watch carefully."
Satisfied that the camera was secure, Parang backed away, revealing Galecus still swimming in frantic circles in the distance.
"I'll be right back. Oh, I added a new function to my suit this time so you guys can see clearly."
Parang tapped the left shoulder of her suit.
Whoosh-
Suddenly, her entire suit glowed a bright blue, making her look like a human glow stick.
"You can see my movements well like this, right?"
The moment she said that, her eyes seemed to flash blue-
"Well then, I'll be back."
Swoosh-!!
The blue line she drew reached Galecus in the blink of an eye.
"For the record, my mic is still connected."
In an instant, the broadcast feed turned into a wide shot of Parang and Galecus's battle from afar.
'She planned this from the very beginning...!'
Yuna was astonished.
Whether she knew that or not, Parang was entirely focused on figuring out how to cook Galecus.
"A sneak attack wouldn't be very fun, so I'll get its attention first."
- A sneak attack wouldn't be fun (says the one who stole its eggs)
- Miss, I don't think it's a matter of fun.
"Galecus has an exceptional ability to detect water vibrations and sounds. Even if I just cause a small explosion nearby like this, it'll instantly pinpoint my location."
Parang used a skill to create a water droplet. It felt a bit awkward to form it with her left hand since she was holding an egg in her right.
Even so, a water droplet the size of a soccer ball gurgled up and then went pop.
Instantly, Galecus stopped its frantic swimming and snapped its head toward Parang.
Parang popped the remaining egg with a splash.
Then, she smiled brightly.
"Bleh."
ROOOOOOAR!!!!!
The battle had begun.
Galecus charged at Parang, thrashing its head wildly. Parang watched it with interest.
Since she had only ever ambushed it from the side and never fought it head-on, this was her first time seeing inside Galecus's mouth.
"Oh, it doesn't have a jaw."
Parang retrieved the Harpoon she had left in the nest.
Since it was a cutlassfish-type monster, she expected it to have a jaw, but surprisingly, its throat was a straight, round tube lined with spiral teeth like a lamprey.
Each individual tooth was about the same size as Parang. It was literally like a fly charging at a human.
However, Parang could swim at terrifying speeds, throw Harpoons, and create explosions.
She was a super ultra fly, so to speak.
"I won't drag this out too long."
She smartly swallowed the rest of her thought about how something else might show up.
Parang moved sideways at a formidable speed, escaping Galecus's trajectory.
Then, as if stepping on an invisible wall, she stopped without any recoil and charged at Galecus.
From start to finish, she had no intention of handing the initiative over to a mere fish.
"Anchoring."
A waterway instantly opened up, connecting directly to Galecus's gills.
Bang!!
The Harpoon was thrown at a terrifying speed. It took only 0.5 seconds from casting the skill to the throw.
Gurgle-
Parang shot forward, overtaking the very weapon she had just thrown.
In an instant, she moved to the opposite side of Galecus, swimming at a matching pace right next to its left eye.
'Retrieve...!'
Reaching out to retrieve what she had thrown earlier, she saw it flying toward her at the exact same speed it was thrown.
Thwack-!
It pierced straight through from the other side of the Head. Entering through the gills, it cleanly penetrated its brain and eye in a straight line before landing perfectly in Parang's hand.
ROOOOAR!!!! ROOOOOOAR!!! ROAR!!!
- Wow, what's with the suit light? It's really pretty.
Due to the nature of the deep-sea environment, her stream had a chat delay of about two to three seconds.
Parang smiled in satisfaction at her speed and positioned herself on a trajectory far ahead of Galecus.
Because its vital organs were damaged and its speed had dropped drastically, it was now impossible for Galecus to catch up to Parang.
Well, that was impossible to begin with anyway.
Galecus charged with its mouth wide open at full force. However, by the time it reached where Parang had been, she had already moved away and was swimming next to its gills at the same speed again.
What Galecus swallowed, thinking it was her, were actually four explosive air bubbles.
She had created them in a row at twenty-meter intervals, and it willingly swallowed them all up like Mario collecting coins.
After confirming the bubbles were safely inside its body, Parang instantly pierced through one point on Galecus's rear, center, and front with her Harpoon, drawing a blue line. They were the brain, heart, and central tail muscle, respectively.
Boom, boom, boom! Explosions erupted from the pierced spots. She had accurately pierced its Scales and popped the air bubbles inside its body.
Galecus instantly suffered fatal damage to three of its core organs. Due to the blue line Parang drew in the water, it looked as if it had been threaded onto a string.
- No, why is she volunteering to stand right in front of its mouth?
Speed, good.
Grrr.........
Unable to swim anymore, Galecus stopped in the water, barely clinging to life.
Now it was time for the finishing blow. Parang gripped the Harpoon with both hands and aimed its tip forward, as if pointing a gun.
She charged straight ahead.
Slaaaash-!!
The Harpoon mercilessly crushed Galecus's flesh, leaving a long, red gash.
At that, Parang hesitated.
Originally, she was just going to hack it to death normally.
However, it felt like something was missing.
She felt like she could come up with a method that was a bit more performative, artistic, and just... something more.
Then, a flash of inspiration hit her. She remembered a scene from a novel she had read in her past life.
As the finale of her performance, wouldn't that be pretty good?
The camera was definitely pointing in that direction.
Parang gazed at the 70-meter canvas filling her view.
Slash- Slaaash! Slash! Snik!!
- What is she doing right now?
- No way, is she doing what I think she's doing?
- I think you're right.
Deep-Sea Fish Hunting Broadcast.
These were the red words she had scrawled across Galecus. Thanks to deliberately luring it close to the camera, the text was perfectly visible on the screen.
"I'm Yoo Parang, a B-Rank Undersea Hunter, and you'll be seeing a lot of me from now on. I look forward to working with you."
- What?
- The heck?
- Huh?
Suddenly, she thrust her Harpoon right next to the words.
Deep-Sea Fish Hunting Broadcast.
At the same time, the fourth water droplet, triggered by the Harpoon, burst with a pop.
It was the area where the Egg Chamber was located.
Grrr... Grrr...
At the same time, Galecus turned into light and disappeared... or not.
Unlike land-dwelling Orcs or the superstar Bellua, Galecus was an Earth creature affected by the Gate.
After all, it laid eggs. Things that come out of Gates originally cannot reproduce.
So, what remained after catching Galecus was a corpse.
Even Parang couldn't drag a seventy-meter Monster Fish corpse back to land. It could attract other Monster Fish along the way, and there was no reason to do so in the first place.
"There's nothing really worth salvaging from Galecus's body. Its teeth are soft, and its skeleton isn't that great."
In short, it was an unprofitable fish.
Then why did she hunt it?
Parang could answer that with confidence.
Because there was a Monster Fish right there.
It felt wrong to just ignore something like that openly swimming around in the ocean.
So, she killed them whenever she saw them.
Well, anyway.
Galecus subjugation, a massive success.
The chat window was blazing faster than ever since the broadcast started.
However.
Thump.
'I dragged this out too long.'
"I'll be ending the broadcast here, then. See you all next time."
Thump.
- Wait, right here?
- Hold on, no!
- Huh?
- Miss?
Thump.
Parang hurriedly turned off all the lights on her suit, then manipulated her Cartridge to send a signal to Yuna.
An emergency broadcast termination signal.
Thump.
They had agreed that under no circumstances would the broadcast continue if this signal went off.
Fortunately, Yuna must have handled it properly, as the notification sound indicating the broadcast had ended rang out.
Thump.
- This is a B-Rank...?
The chat stopped scrolling with that final message.
Thump.
Having confirmed that much, Parang quickly gathered her things and hid her body inside Galecus's nest.
Going deep inside wouldn't work. She hid herself in the seam connecting the narrow entrance of the nest to the wide passageway.
Thump.
It was the equivalent of hiding behind a door.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Parang pressed herself flat against the wall, not even daring to breathe.
Thump.
Soon, something completely blocked the opening of the tube where Parang was hiding.
An eye.
It was peering inside.
" "
That was ■■.
.........
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump...
Eventually, it disappeared into the distance.
Parang cautiously peeked her head out from the gap in the tube.
Far away, beyond the ultramarine fog.
Something was standing there.
A person.
More precisely, something in the shape of a person.
It was so massive that she could clearly make out its shape even though it was an immense distance away.
Parang knew what that was.
It was a Statue. Like the Statue of David or the Statue of Venus.
A giant Statue in the shape of a person.
But it absolutely wasn't a Statue.
Something pretending to be a Statue was walking around at the bottom of the sea.
#
As soon as Parang returned home that day, she fell asleep without doing anything else.
It was because the extreme tension she felt suddenly released, causing exhaustion to wash over her.
Naturally, Galecus didn't contribute to this exhaustion at all.
Therefore, it wasn't until Parang woke up the next morning that she realized the world had been turned upside down because of her single broadcast.
And,
Rustle- rustle-
Crackle-
"This is Head. Beta Team, report your situation."
"Beta Team has arrived at the operation area. We will enter with Alpha and Gamma... wait, who are you... urk!!"
Thud.
"Do we kill them?"
"Why are you asking the obvious?"
"Mmph!! Mmph!! Mmph!!!!"
"That makes nine."
"Any more?"
"No, sir."
"Nine S-Rank Hunters. They must have been in quite a hurry."
Crunch!
"Khap, urgh, gurgle...."
"Throw them in the sea."
Splash.
Crackle-
"This is Head. Beta Team respond, Beta Team! Damn it, Manager!!!"
"What should we do with this radio?"
"Break it."
Crack.
"Do we throw this in the sea too?"
"No, bring it back with us."
"Yes, sir."
In the dark of the night, nine S-Rank Hunters who appeared in front of her house were instantly ambushed and thrown into the sea, but Parang didn't know that either.
She had a good night's sleep for the first time in a while.