26
Chapter 26
"You didn't mishear. And we aren't mistaken, either."
The Screen that had displayed the graph earlier switched.
It was a World Map that Parang knew well. However, red dots were marked all over the Map.
"These are the last confirmed locations of the Slayers Hunters."
The man pointed to various spots on the Map and stated their names.
The Arctic Ocean.
"Kang Yuri."
The South China Sea.
"Olivia Cloverfield."
The Caribbean Sea.
"Anna Popov."
The East Sea.
"Alexandra Carmen."
After that, it continued.
The man pointed at the red dots on the World Map one by one, matching them with names.
And then, the final one.
Pointing to a red dot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the man from Cylo continued speaking.
The location was Hawaii.
"Finally, this is the location of Hunter Han Siwoo."
Hawaii in this World is an island floating on the sea.
Literally. Even though it should clearly be physically impossible, a Boulder the size of Hawaii is floating and bobbing in the sea like a buoy.
And no one on Earth questions this fact. Not even Yoo Parang.
It was something that wasn't even mentioned in the Novel.
So what caught Parang's interest were the man's words.
"Hunter Han Siwoo's location, what do you mean."
Parang was unable to finish her sentence about how she had clearly seen him undergo Ascension with her own eyes.
"That's right. They underwent Ascension, but at the same time, they went to the bottom of the sea."
"Explain it so I can understand."
"Hunter Han Siwoo's Ascension was achieved solely with Cylo's participation, excluding the World Government and the Association."
This was information that Parang also knew. Cylo was the only one to participate in Hunter Han Siwoo's Ascension Ritual, and there were three main reasons for this.
First. At the time the Ascension plan was devised, the Hunter Association and the World Government lacked the ability to conduct the Ritual. Even Cylo had to draw upon most of its potential for the Ascension Ritual of the fifteen Slayers.
This was also a measure to balance the power between the three organizations.
Second. Since Cylo was founded directly by Hunter Han Siwoo, its reliability was extremely high. There was absolutely no chance of them playing any tricks.
Third. Because they needed to minimize the number of people who knew that Hunter Han Siwoo would disappear from Earth.
This was part of her knowledge from the Original Work.
However, completely different words came out of the man's mouth.
"We were curious. Where and how exactly does this 'Ascension Ritual' make the target ascend."
Parang didn't know about that either. It was simply called 'Ascension', but it never stated where they went. The readers each roughly understood it as a higher dimension, the sky, the Universe, or another planet.
It wasn't really a factor that hindered reading the Novel.
Why didn't anyone question it? Well, because that Novel was just that kind of Novel.
It was just the protagonist's party undergoing 'Ascension' in a clichéd overpowered growth story.
People just figured they would get stronger and left it at that; no one paid attention to where this Ritual was taking them.
They simply thought, 'The author will explain it eventually.'
Even when the main story concluded with Ascension, there wasn't much of an uproar.
Since a side story serialization was officially scheduled.
Let alone, who could have expected them to head to an unexpected place like the 'seabed'.
Parang deeply regretted not being able to read that 'side story' for the first time since coming to this World.
Well, anyway. This man in front of her and Cylo seemed to have taken an interest in it.
It was the perspective of those who didn't know this World was a Novel.
"So, using every method available to us, we observed where Hunter Han Siwoo's Ascension was heading."
He added that it was naturally agreed upon with the Slayers, and then continued in a low voice.
"We mobilized everything from helicopters, drones, Airplanes, satellites, and even Location Trackers. Surprisingly, most yielded meaningful results."
"Why did you attach Location Trackers? You must have known that such things wouldn't survive during Ascension."
"We put them inside their bodies."
"...What did you say?"
"According to our predictions, the physical body gets replaced during Ascension, but there's one exception. We concluded that the blood alone doesn't change. So we created nanometer-sized Location Trackers and injected them into the bodies of all the Slayers."
A Location Tracker injected into the bloodstream. Parang felt dizzy. There was no way these bastards only used that on the Slayers.
Outside the water, Parang's emotions were easily revealed on her face. The man looked at Parang's face for a moment and paused, but continued without mentioning it.
It meant he wouldn't bother making any excuses.
"Anyway. The destination of the Ascension Ritual that we found out using all sorts of methods is right here."
A red dot precisely marked on Hawaii.
"This is the situation at the time. Take a look."
Another Monitor came up next to the Monitor that was already there.
The video playing on it was something Parang knew well too.
It was the Screen of the live broadcast that filmed the Slayers' Ascension Ritual.
The pillar of light descending upon them standing on the sea, and upward. Splash, splash, crack, crack. And then the video of the sky closing.
The live broadcast on the news ended with that. But the video in this Monitor didn't.
Suddenly, the viewpoint switched, changing to the perspective of a drone flying above the clouds.
The pillar of light shot up endlessly into the sky, and the Slayers continued to rise.
The Screen switched again, this time to footage filmed by a satellite.
The pillar of light extended all the way to the Universe. The Slayers continued going up. And then.
.
Along with the pillar of light, they disappeared.
It was like a video that had been intentionally edited to cut off abruptly.
Just, poof.
Parang got a bizarre feeling from that.
It was as if they had been abducted by something.
She couldn't explain how she got this feeling.
She just felt something. Without even the self-awareness that she had 'felt' it.
"I'm telling you this in case you doubt it, but this is the original video."
Parang didn't doubt his words either. She didn't think they would play such a trick on the video after coming this far.
"At this point, the location signals of all the Slayers moved below Hawaii."
"How deep?"
"At the 6km mark."
"6km...."
"There is something beneath Hawaii. Hunter Yoo Parang."
Parang tilted her head in confusion at that part. Because it was the part she had questioned since the conversation began.
"There's nothing there."
That was true. There was no way Oceanus hadn't explored beneath the island of Hawaii. For starters, didn't Russell live in Hawaii?
All the members had gone under Hawaii. Recently, after Cylo released their underwater Camera, Russell even took and uploaded a commemorative Photo.
While 6km was certainly a deep depth, it was definitely a point Oceanus had been to.
And there was nothing there. No Hive, no Objet, nothing.
And there weren't even... any Monster Fish. Just water.
"There's... nothing...."
Parang also felt a bit puzzled at that realization.
Why hadn't she thought it was suspicious back then?
Even setting aside a Hive or an Objet, why weren't there even any Monster Fish, which practically littered the ocean?
"It seems you have a guess."
"I'm not certain."
Because it could just be a coincidence.
"Is it alright if I continue?"
"...Yes."
Parang hesitated for a moment. Too much information was coming in at once in real-time. She needed some time to organize her thoughts.
"Anyway. The 15 Slayers stayed together at that location for about 5 hours. Then, one by one, they all moved to other oceans around the World. Excluding Hunter Han Siwoo. After that, everyone's location movement stopped. There's a high probability—no, almost an absolute certainty—that they died."
Parang turned her gaze to look at the World Map from earlier.
There were points located in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, of course, as well as the Arctic and Antarctic, and even the East Sea next to South Korea.
Parang instantly found a commonality.
"Hives."
"I made the right call bringing you here."
They had moved to Hives across the World.
Parang raised another question here.
"Why these places? I mean."
The fact that they 'moved' from Hawaii to oceans across the World wasn't surprising to Parang. This was something that happened in the Original Work as well.
The Slayers had embarked on their Ascension with an 'Emergency Escape Device' each.
An Artifact that allowed them to teleport to a desired location exactly once at any time.
In the Original Work, it was simply described as 'carrying it on their person', but thinking about it now, had they put this in their blood too?
What Parang was curious about was why they teleported to 'Hives beneath the sea'.
"We don't know either. That's why we contacted Hunter Yoo Parang to find out."
Hearing up to that point, Parang cut him off. To summarize the conversation they had so far.
The information she had obtained so far from the conversation with Cylo was as follows:
1. The Slayers disappeared during the Ascension Ritual and appeared at a point 6km below Hawaii.
2. During the 5 hours they stayed there, they encountered a situation where they had to use their Emergency Escape Devices, and everyone except Hunter Han Siwoo used the device.
3. However, for some reason, they teleported to the Hives scattered across the World's oceans and died.
A rough outline was formed. Why they sought Parang out, and why they were trying to protect her and Oceanus.
Cylo was currently dealing with whatever killed the Slayers on the seabed, while simultaneously keeping the World Government, which was leading people to the sea, in check, and they also needed to uncover the reason why the Slayers died.
And what did Oceanus have?
Combat power on the seabed that transcended imagination, the will to protect the World, and Xiao's 'Dive'.
Parang and Oceanus could solve all the points where they were experiencing difficulties.
So this was the situation. Parang thought.
"It seems you have roughly understood. Then I'll speak frankly."
The man gave a small nod.
"First. Find the Corpses of the Slayers and look into their memories. Second. Continue your current broadcast to stop people from going to the seabed. Third. Discover what is beneath Hawaii, and then, whatever it is, eliminate it from Earth."
The second condition was something she was already doing, and the third was something she would do even without being asked. The Monster that killed the Slayers, or whatever it was. If it was on the seabed, it was right to get rid of it.
Some might ask, 'You're going to broadcast in this situation?'
But wasn't it true? Parang's broadcast was actually preventing people from diving.
What if Cylo decided to seal off all the coastlines around the world just to stop people from diving?
The World Government might start a war that very day.
For Parang, doing the broadcast wasn't a difficult task either.
To deal with whatever was beneath Hawaii that slaughtered the Slayers, she first needed to get information about it.
To get information about it, she had to look at the Slayers' memories.
To look at the Slayers' memories? She would have to search the Hives all over the World.
Turning on the broadcast for a bit during that process wouldn't cause much delay.
And ultimately, Parang was confident.
Whatever the Slayers had fallen to, she had the certainty that she could win.
Why?
That stemmed from her knowledge of the Original Work.
Among the members of the Slayers, there was a power user who held an absolute advantage over 'inanimate objects'.
Therefore, the Slayers weren't defeated by something inanimate.
If so, what harmed them was a 'living creature'.
And all 'living creatures' underwater were beneath Parang.
[ Daughter of the Kraken (S) ]
[ You cannot use this Skill unless your entire body is submerged in water. ]
[ You hold an overwhelming advantage against all living creatures in the sea. ]
This was the description she saw when she first chose the 'Daughter of the Kraken' Skill.
Although it was a Skill that never even appeared in the Original Work, she chose the Skill after seeing this description.
If she couldn't use the Skill outside of water, how did she make a spear out of air?
It was a built-in feature of her Suit.
Well, that wasn't what was important.
Cylo probably knew this to some extent when they threw out their conditions.
They must have contacted her after concluding among themselves that it would be possible if it was Parang.
And then they even showed the meticulousness of putting forward 'conditions that weren't really conditions'. This made 'looking into the Slayers' memories' seem like a mere bonus condition.
Of course, this wouldn't be all. They would have to share information from time to time, and occasionally her actions might be restricted.
However, even taking all of that into consideration, there was a lot Parang could get out of Cylo.
"What can you do for us?"
In a way, it was a bold statement, but they desperately needed Parang.
They wouldn't be able to lay a finger on her easily. Anyway, Cylo needed her in perfect condition.
And ultimately, they needed to put Parang in the water in that condition. Knowing full well what would happen once she got into the water.
As if her prediction had hit the mark, Cylo didn't even mention words like 'ultimatum' or 'last resort'.
"We will give you everything Cylo can offer. Funds, information, technology, protection on land, Artifacts, Skill Scrolls, anything."
Parang grinned. They were even more generous than she had expected.
"Alright. Let's cooperate."
The man from Cylo grinned as well.
"I'm glad to have gained a reliable ally."
And so.
Atop a skyscraper in Hong Kong, the city of never-ending festivals, an alliance that would shake the World was born.