4
Chapter 4
Two weeks had passed.
"Haa...."
Parang squeezed her eyes shut as she looked at her phone screen.
The diving craze showed no signs of dying down. If anything, it was blazing hotter than ever.
More Artifacts were being discovered by the day, and even more people were throwing themselves into the sea.
"Wow, everyone, do you see this? This is a real Artifact, right? Crazy, wow...."
In the LIVE video on her phone screen, a physical enhancement-type Streaming Hunter was making a fuss about finding a real Artifact.
Streaming Hunters. People who broadcasted their Hunter activities on personal streams. It wasn't always a main source of income, but it made for good pocket money. Depending on the channel's size, stream revenue sometimes eclipsed their actual commission earnings.
Well, of course. Not many people could resist watching a live stream of a human fighting a Dragon.
Before anyone knew it, Hunter live streams had surpassed professional sports to become the undisputed number one content in the world.
And the absolute hottest trend right now was diving streams. Cylo Corporation had even quickly modified their existing products to release underwater broadcasting equipment onto the market.
That wasn't all. Electronic devices endowed with waterproofing and pressure resistance options were springing up everywhere.
Mass-producing electronics with imbued options—if it weren't Cylo, the company would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.
Surprisingly, Parang had a stake in that business too. She had gone to a Cylo laboratory with an agent who wanted a private chat, did a few experiments, drew a little blood, and two days later, speakers and microphones that worked underwater were released.
Thanks to that, Parang also got her hands on a deep-sea phone. Now, she could lie underwater and watch T-Tube.
It was a model that functioned perfectly even four kilometers below the sea. Naturally, it wasn't a commercially available product, but a custom order. As a freebie for touring the lab once, it was more than enough.
Parang lay in the water, effortlessly scrolling down T-Tube.
Most of the videos were vlogs like [Scuba Day 1], and the few remaining ones were all diving streams.
Lately, Parang enjoyed watching these diving streams.
It wasn't born out of the worry that the streamer might run into a Monster Fish and cause everyone to panic.
She had felt that way up until last week, but now she simply watched them because she liked diving videos. Since Parang only operated in the East Sea, she partly lived vicariously through seeing the shallow seas of other regions.
She could swim there herself, but it was just too bothersome. The closest shallow sea was the Yellow Sea. It would be a massive swim, requiring her to go all the way around the Korean peninsula.
Taking a land route was absolutely out of the question for Parang.
Anyway, Parang felt relieved seeing people continue their wholesome, Monster Fish-free diving lives for the second week.
In the first place, not a single person in the entire world went deep enough for a Monster Fish to appear, excluding those who naturally went in as easily as breathing.
After all, it was hard to dive that deep, and even without going that far, Artifacts and gold bars were practically popping out at depths of just fifty to a hundred meters.
'Why on earth are gold bars coming out of there....'
Out of everyone Parang had seen so far, the person who went the deepest stopped at 300 meters.
So, there was no need to worry about people dying from a Monster Fish. Well, things like two-meter-long Sharks did exist in the surface layer, but...
That was for them to handle. Parang's policy was strictly to prevent damage caused by a Monster Fish. In other words, since no one was capable of entering the Monster Fish Zone, she had no reason to intervene with those just playing around at the surface.
But then, one might wonder: why?
Why was getting bitten to death by a two-meter Shark their own problem, but a Monster Fish wasn't?
That was because there were a few beings that the world must never know about.
Not weaklings like a Bellua, but the real deals. Otherworldly disasters that could sap human will and bring chaos to society just by existing.
Those things were slumbering deep down there.
There were exactly six people in the entire world who knew this.
The Undersea Hunters who survived witnessing *those things*. After seeing *those things*, they decided to bear the burden of this truth themselves without informing anyone else.
It was, quite literally, too massive a truth for humanity to comprehend.
Besides, it was not like humanity could do anything even if they did know.
Parang was one of them.
This was information unknown to the Hunter Association, the World Government, and Cylo... well, for some reason, it felt like Cylo might know. Anyway, no one else besides these six knew.
And the people who could access that information were, as of yet, still only those six. That was a relief.
However, rendering that relief meaningless, the title of a newly started live stream entered the view of Parang as she lay in the water, fiddling with her phone.
[LIVE – World-First 800m Diving Stream]
Parang dropped her phone in surprise.
It hit her face, but it did not hurt since she was underwater.
Parang picked her phone back up and turned on the stream.
A familiar location unfolded on the screen.
'No way....'
This,
It is right near my neighborhood.
Parang dropped her phone once more.
She tried to turn her head to dodge it, but then decided it was better to just take it to the face, so she did.
Then, with a sudden splash, Parang disappeared.
#
S-Rank Production Hunter, Shin Yuna.
She was feeling great right now.
The reason was simple.
[Currently 25,320 people are watching.]
'25,000 people...!'
Three times her usual audience was watching her stream.
It was a content idea she had thought of the moment she saw the news of the ascension of Slayers. She began working on it the very next morning and finished it yesterday.
Finished what? A Submarine.
Today, she was going to dive down to 800 meters below the sea in a Submarine she built herself and come back up.
As with any Hunter media, an S-Rank Production Hunter was at the very top of the Hunter caste system.
Borrowing a Cylo Laboratory was as easy as breathing. Of course, it was not free.
Anyway, she had even run water pressure resistance tests at the Laboratory. The hull crumpled at the 1km mark.
Even putting aside treasures and Artifacts, exploring the unknown deep sea was a thrilling endeavor.
Yuna had perfectly targeted the hearts of the 25,000 people who harbored that exact same thrill.
And her heart was also pounding 25,000 times harder than usual.
Trying hard to hide her trembling voice, she began hosting the stream.
"Hello everyone~ It's July 3rd's Shin Yuna."
- You're finally streaming, you wench
- Yuna Punch! Yuna Punch! Yuna Punch! Yuna Punch!
- Abandoning the stream for 2 weeks just to come back and do an 800m dive LOL sheesh
"Hey, you shouldn't call it abandoning the stream. I clearly wrote a notice saying I'd spend two weeks making something totally awesome to show you."
The chat window was flooded with various emoticons.
- User 'oo' donated 1,000 won! Thank you~! -
[ wtf are you really going in 800m? Not 80? ]
"Yes, that's right. I'm going in 800m today."
- No, how do you even go 800m you crazy
- Did you get an Undersea Hunter or something?
- └ What is that?
- It's a thing.
"Undersea Hunter... I have heard of them, but I didn't invite one today~. I don't even know where they are, to begin with."
Undersea Hunters. Hunters who operated underwater. Yuna also knew of their existence.
Since it was an ultra-rare profession with only about twenty of them scattered across all of South Korea, they had been featured in a few 'Extreme Jobs' interviews and even had documentaries made about them.
They felt exactly like modern society's wildmen. You knew they existed because you heard of them, but you had no idea how they lived, nor did you care.
- sowhendoesthedivestartimimanahurrydoitfastimgoingtocome
- Crazy dive fanatic ]_]
"Just wait a bit. What do you mean 'going to come'... You're temporarily banned."
Confirming that the chat had heated up enough, she turned the camera that had been filming her face toward the pier.
"Ta-da~! Introducing the Nautilus~!"
- wtf is that?
- Is that a Submarine?
- I think that's a Submarine?
- Is it what I think it is?
"Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. I spent two weeks building this."
- User 'oo' donated 1,000 won! Thank you~! -
[ Crazy bitch... crazy bitch... ]
As expected, the reaction was explosive. Seeing the atmosphere grow increasingly livelier, Yuna smiled in satisfaction.
- You built that alone?
- Building an airplane and riding it last time wasn't enough, huh...
- └ What airplane LOL
- It's a thing
- Tell me if it's a thing, you fcker
"That's right. An airplane wasn't enough, so I built this~ It can dive down to at least 1km, and ah crap, I should build up the suspense more, but I really want to ride it the most, so I'm just getting in."
- At least explain it before you get in LOL
- That engineering nerd nature isn't going anywhere haha
- I believe it. You are definitely Shin Yuna.
"Ah, I'll explain it once I'm inside. Wow this is, wow...."
This was real. Stream or not, she wanted to get inside the Submarine she built right away. She was so overwhelmed with emotion that she even felt a tingle in her lower abdomen.
After quickly getting into the Submarine and closing the hatch, she operated her broadcasting equipment.
Soon, the stream screen switched to the interior camera of the Submarine.
The interior of the Submarine, designed for only one person, had a look that would stimulate the fantasies of many men and so-called engineering nerds.
Inner walls made of rugged steel, a plush-looking leather chair, and dozens of levers and instrument panels surrounding it.
On top of that, there were interior lights that gave off a subtle gaslight vibe, and grid-shaped iron grilles protecting the front glass window.
The camera screen was split in two. A main cam positioned at the very top of the backrest of Yuna's chair, filming the sea ahead, and a sub-cam fixed on the Submarine's ceiling to show the entire interior.
It was a layout where the main cam filled the stream screen, with the sub-cam screen displayed in a small size in the bottom right corner.
- User 'Arongsatae' donated 5,000 won! Thank you~! -
[ This crazy bitch even ended up making the Submarine steampunk-styled... ]
"Steampunk is life, everyone."
- The main cam view is fcking dope yep;;
- But it looks a bit small, can it really dive down to 800?
- Are you new here? She is an S-Rank Production Type.
- Ah, I acknowledge that then;;
- No, but why is an S-Rank Production Type doing a live stream
- We can't see your face!!!
"I already borrowed a Cylo Laboratory and confirmed it can go down to 1km. And my face is showing on the sub-cam, so what do you mean you can't see it."
- How are we supposed to see through that tiny ass screen!!
"Uh-uh, tone it down, tone it down. Use proper language."
- How are we supposed to see through that Yuna-sized screen!!
"Get out."
The viewer was just too excited to see her return after two weeks.
Normally, that joke would be grounds for a permanent ban, but since she was in a good mood, she let it slide with a temporary ban.
"Alright~ Everyone, prepare to dive~!"
She had always wanted to say this line someday.
- Aye aye, Captain!!
- Aye aye, Captain!!!!
- Aye aye, Captain!
And just like that, the Submarine with Yuna inside began to sink into the sea.