58
Chapter 58
[ Please enter the amount to transfer to [Bertea Fabron]. ]
[ Would you like to transfer 120,000 won? Additional exchange fees apply for overseas transfers. ]
[ Transfer completed. ]
Parang: I sent the warp fee.
Parang: (Screenshot)
Parang closed the banking app with a sullen expression.
No, but what kind of monsters disappear in less than two hours? It made no logical sense that Bertea couldn't find the Capulus school even after searching the entire vicinity.
Jokes aside, if it were Bertea, she might have actually scoured the entire East Sea.
Then did they really escape Bertea's search radius in the waters off South Korea in that short amount of time?
From Bertea's search radius, of all people.
With the speed of an average Monster Fish, that would be completely unimaginable.
Besides, Capulus was a Monster Fish that had absolutely nothing to do with speed.
They always just appeared before her eyes floating around blankly.
It definitely couldn't be Stealth... either. The number of Monster Fish capable of hiding themselves from Bertea could be counted on one hand.
It was highly unlikely that Capulus was on that list. Weren't they getting caught by Parang left and right just now?
"Is it only visible to me?"
...There was no way. It wasn't like they were some imaginary friends.
She even watched them together with the Viewers during the East Sea broadcast.
"What is this, seriously..."
As she stood there blankly continuing to ponder, she checked the Clock and saw it was six in the evening.
Six in the evening was prime time to lie down in the sea and slack off.
However, Parang made a big decision and gave up her underwater rest!
She decided to sweep through the area near where she had discovered the Capulus.
No matter how much she thought about it, it felt too sketchy.
Going now probably wouldn't turn up anything, but she had to try.
They might have dropped something, just like shedding a Galecus Scale.
And by some huge coincidence, Bertea might have missed it.
Honestly, that seemed far more convincing than assuming Capulus was a Monster Fish capable of evading Bertea's search.
So, Parang headed to the Monster Fish Zone once again.
And then...
"What the. They're right here."
About 300 meters below the spot where she originally found the Capulus school, she discovered the exact same school she had seen earlier.
Did Bertea forget to search here? No, that didn't seem likely.
Parang quickly pulled out her Cellphone to text Bertea... but right at that moment.
Vwooom-
The eyes of exactly one thousand Capulus began to glow purple all at once.
According to the professional Undersea Hunter Parang's long underwater experience, something glowing in the ocean was highly likely synonymous with saying, "I'm going to launch a Mental Attack now."
Parang also automatically went into high alert.
...Into high... alert.
Huh?
The window wasn't popping up.
If the Capulus in front of her were launching a Mental Attack, a Notification Window should have popped up.
Mr. Notification Window, who usually kindly informed her, [ The Skill, Waterproof Sanity, is active. ], did not show up to work this time.
Then is it not a Mental Attack?
The Capulus, which had previously formed a grid, were now gathered in a spherical shape centered around Parang.
As expected, Parang was very popular with the Monster Fish.
The surroundings were soon filled with the purple light emitting from the Capulus' eyes, taking on a distinct purple hue.
At this, Parang looked at her surroundings and spoke.
"Why were you nowhere to be seen before, yet have now gathered here?"
"We beseech you, please pretend you did not see us."
"Then what shall you offer?"
"We offer half of ourselves."
"I acknowledge your will."
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Parang opened her eyes.
Looking around, the purple-glowing Capulus were aligned in a spherical shape around her.
There seemed to be about a thousand of them, but the light some emitted was weaker than others, and about half had nothing but bloody pus and torn flesh filling their eye sockets, as if their Eyeballs had burst.
Parang thought to herself.
It didn't seem necessary to call Bertea right now.
Parang had something important to do right now.
She couldn't quite remember what that was, but she needed to hurry back home.
There was no time to observe the Capulus.
'Well, I can do it next time. There are plenty of opportunities.'
Parang headed back home.
#
Yoo Parang, returning home.
"Hmm, hmhm~"
For some reason, she felt good.
Was it because she had finally taken a comfortable rest underwater after such a long time?
Her Head throbbed as if she had dozed off, but the unpleasant sensation soon disappeared.
As expected, people need to rest.
Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-
As she buried herself in the plush sofa and slacked off for a bit, the Oceanus members started arriving at her house one by one around eight in the evening for tomorrow's Statue subjugation.
With Elvira arriving at 10 o'clock as the last, everyone had gathered.
Parang popped the microwave Popcorn she had stocked up on with a rustle, and they each cracked open a can of Beer! Pfft, hiss.......
They all fell asleep while watching Netholix together.
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"You wait right there."
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#
And then, morning!
"Hnnng, haaaah......!!"
Stretching refreshingly, Yoo Parang, awake!
The current time was eight thirty in the morning.
It was a super ultra early-fish wake-up.
Did she dream about something last night? She felt oddly unsettled for a moment, but soon felt at ease again.
It wasn't exactly like getting sick and then receiving medicine. Parang felt somewhat peculiar.
She got up from the Water Tank, simply changed her clothes, and went straight outside.
From the room across the Hallway, loud snoring could be heard, and from the Shower Room opposite that, the splash of running water.
Going down to the first floor, a delicious smell wafted through the air.
In the culinary wasteland that was Oceanus, Elvira was the only one capable of showing off this level of skill.
She had brought an armful of things yesterday and shoved them into the fridge, so they must have been cooking Materials.
Walking toward the Kitchen with a slightly quickened pace, a hearty, though unextravagant, meal caught Parang's eye.
A warm, bright red Soup and steaming Golubtsy.
It was Parang's favorite combination.
"You're up early. There's more in the pot over there, so help yourself if you want more."
Munch, munch. Parang, who had polished off nearly two servings, headed to the living room this time.
She shoved aside Bertea, who was sprawling on the sofa looking at her Cellphone, and sat down to enjoy the lazy morning sunlight.
This was the ordinary sight of Oceanus the day after a sleepover.
A little time passed, and once Xiao, who woke up the latest, finished her meal, the five members excluding Elvira did the dishes.
At 10:30, everyone sat around in the living room.
It was to discuss the subjugation taking place today.
Parang, the one who called the meeting, opened her mouth.
Her eyes briefly lost their light.
"......To be honest, I'm only telling you this now, but the target this time. It's a 'Titan'."
Just the word 'Titan'. At that, the expressions of everyone in Oceanus drastically changed.
A rage and fighting spirit that seemed capable of burning everything around them filled the space.
Russell immediately lowered his voice and growled at Parang.
"A Titan. Why didn't you say so earlier."
He probably wasn't genuinely angry at Parang, but his negative emotions couldn't be hidden.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Xiao restrained him.
"She probably did it because she thought you'd rush in blindly like you are right now. Calm down."
Bertea also chimed in.
"Xiao is right. You seriously need to temper your anger. But aside from that, I feel the same way. Why did you hide it?"
"I wasn't hiding it. As you guys know, I've had... a lot going on lately."
It was the truth.
The day after spotting the Titan, Oceanus hunted a Sperm Whale together.
Before Parang could bring up the Titan, Xiao had dropped a bombshell regarding the 'Artifact of the Slayers'.
Right after, Parang's trip to Hong Kong was decided, making it awkward to bring up the Titan.
At the time, they were trying so hard to hide Oceanus from the entire Earth, so she was reluctant to have everyone gather two days in a row.
And after going to Hong Kong, she witnessed the scene where she almost got murdered, and heard the news of the Slayers' deaths from Cylo, who approached her immediately after.
And ever since. A lot had happened.
Thus, she had been putting off talking about the Titan until now.
So, what exactly was this 'Titan' that instantly put a furious expression on the faces of the strongest Undersea Hunters on Earth? Well, as the name suggested, it was a freaking huge Statue.
It was also the entity Parang encountered on the day of her first broadcast.
Broadly categorized as 'Statue', the undersea Statues are divided into four types. The small ones, the medium ones, the large ones, and the freaking huge ones.
Among them, the most massive, strongest, trickiest, and simultaneously the rarest entities are called Titans.
To give an idea of how rare they are, Oceanus has only ever discovered exactly ten of them, including the one Parang just found.
Unofficially, there are twelve, since there were two among the Statue army that appeared in Alexandra's memories.
Among those, Oceanus had slain nine.
The two facing the Slayers... well, since the scene of them being killed didn't show up in Alexandra's memories, we'll set them aside.
There was one last one that they had missed.
The bastard that made all of Oceanus frantically scour the oceans of the World for about half a year, slaughtering every Monster Fish in sight.
The bastard that left an unforgettable scar on all of them, making them search the seas in tears for the rest of their lives.
What took away Alice Melville, the seventh member of Oceanus, was the very Titan they had missed.
Since emotions are bound to wear out over a long time, even if a Titan or a Statue is discovered now, they don't express the same Madness-filled rage as they did back then.
In the past, they searched with fire in their eyes, hoping to somehow get information about Alice from a Titan, but after killing nine of them, not a single piece of related information came out.
Now, only anger remains.
......At least, that's what they wanted to think.
With the revelation that their target is a Titan, there is no more time to delay.
They quietly looked at each other one by one.
Everyone could see into each other's eyes.
And they all could feel it.
Right now, their own eyes would look terrifyingly similar to the comrade in front of them.