61
Chapter 61
"Uwaaaahhh!!!!"
Parang let out a bizarre scream and charged at the Titan.
To an enemy standing one kilometer tall, Parang was undoubtedly less than dust, but strangely, the Titan snapped its head around to glare right at Parang even while rolling on the Floor.
It had recognized her as a risk factor.
The Titan's eyes, represented by embedded blue Jewels, glowed as they glared fiercely at Parang.
Parang knew what happened when someone without Resistance was exposed to that light.
They would immediately stop and hold their breath to kill themselves.
[ Skill, Waterproof Sanity is activating. ]
[ Skill, Unsinkable Ship is activating. ]
But Parang did not stop, nor did she commit suicide.
She simply stared silently at the Titan and charged.
And in her pupils, a blue light flared up, burning more fiercely than ever before.
The Titan threw everything it had at her to try and stop her.
It opened its mouth and spewed out an enormous amount of water, radiated intense heat from its body, and slammed the ground to make the earth erupt.
But Parang did not care and broke through all those attacks head-on.
The fiercely spewing water, the boiling heat, the rising ground.
She simply pierced right through it all.
[ Gains an overwhelming advantage against all creatures in the sea. ]
That was the description of Parang's Personal Skill, Daughter of the Kraken.
And in this World, the absolute rule that held true even if the sky fell was that the Status Window does not lie.
That was not a figure of speech, but reality.
In the late stages of the Original Work, even when the sky collapsed and all sorts of Angels and Demons descended, the Status Window remained intact.
Even the god who was the final boss could not touch the Status Window.
Even if the explanations were vague and hard to understand, it was an undeniable fact that what was written there was true.
In reality, didn't Parang have an overwhelming advantage against all creatures in the sea?
That fact would never change for all eternity.
Parang had no doubts about this single fact either.
It was a kind of truth.
In a life where life-threatening battles were the norm, having an unchanging truth by your side in any situation.
That held an unimaginably massive meaning.
Because of that, there were a few Hunters who worshipped the Status Window.
Even a mental illness called Status Window Overdependence was already being studied in depth by academia.
And Parang also thought that the truth of the Status Window would never betray her.
Even if the World ended, Parang would be able to hold an overwhelming advantage against all creatures in the sea.
But damn it all, this World ended up smacking her hard in the back of the head.
By bringing a Monster that was not a living creature right in front of her.
The Kraken gave no help whatsoever to Parang as she faced the Titan.
Let alone swallowing the Titan, it did not even wrap around it to seal its movements.
There was no way to know if it could not or simply would not.
It probably just chose not to.
It was unlikely that the Kraken would be unable to stop the movements of a mere Titan.
This was why Parang did not overtrust the Kraken.
Naturally, the shock Parang must have felt the day she first faced a Titan and had Alice taken from her was beyond imagination.
If it had been an ordinary person, it would not have been strange if they fell into despair and became a wreck, or were left with severe trauma.
But she stood back up and started fighting again.
Even though a long time had passed, the fear still remained.
Sometimes she would hide and tremble in fear.
However, she never stopped moving forward.
She swung her fists at Boulders.
She threw Harpoons at Rocks.
She threw her body against mountains.
Every time she did, the wounds on her body multiplied, bruises formed, and blood flowed.
But she did not stop.
Because after that incident, she stopped having blind faith in this World and the Kraken.
Instead, she decided to find something else to believe in.
Herself.
Had the Status Window defined Parang as a Hunter who was strong against living creatures?
Parang decided to reject that.
Not just living creatures, but even non-living things like Titans.
Whatever it was, she would become an existence capable of crushing everything that dared to stand in her way.
She did not know when that would be.
She did not even know if it was possible.
Naturally, that path was long and rugged. After all, Parang still could not take down a Titan single-handedly.
But no matter how long and rugged the path was, she could still walk it.
[ Skill, Jetstream has been acquired. ]
[ Skill, Unsinkable Ship has been acquired. ]
[ Skill, Blue Bomb has been acquired. ]
......
......
Parang slowly began to define herself.
To remain not as the Daughter of the Kraken, but as Yoo Parang.
Blue currents wrapped around her fist as she drew it back.
Creating and bursting a bubble like this was the [Blue Bomb], the water bomb Skill that Parang loved to use.
But instead of gathering the water, she wrapped it around her arm and spun it.
More and more water, faster and faster.
Soon, a massive whirlpool formed around her arm.
Parang stretched her arm forward.
Like a hero flying toward evil.
Swoosh-
The whirlpool showed no signs of shrinking; it only continued to grow.
What had been located only on her arm spread to her whole body, and now it seemed as if Parang herself had become a single giant Drill.
Not to mention her speed was unimaginably fast.
Swoosh-!!
She pierced right through the middle of the Titan's forehead.
As if she had become a single Bullet.
She bored straight through the entire thickness from its forehead to the back of its Head.
Parang didn't stop there; she pierced the Titan's Head about twenty more times as if sewing it, destroying eight Cores in the process.
And then, exhaustion.
Drained of energy, Parang slumped and sank into the water, but Russell supported her and retreated from the battle.
About thirty minutes later, Parang opened her eyes, and she could see the Titan turning into light and disappearing after having all its Cores destroyed.
All that remained was a house-sized yellow Jewel that had served as an eye, and a Magic Stone with a radius of about fifty meters.
Naturally, no trace of Alice could be found.
The Titan subjugation was complete.
Bone Dolls, appearing to number in the thousands, showed up and collected the Magic Stone.
They would embed it in a space deep within the sea.
Because bringing it up to the surface would only add to the confusion.
Money? Since when did they care about such a thing?
As for the Jewel...... there was a special place for it.
"Diego, I'm counting on you."
Diego, using Gigantification, grabbed the Jewel in one hand and walked toward that place.
The rest of Oceanus also disbanded one by one.
They returned home.
#
Parang's house, Bedroom, Water Tank.
Lying there, Parang's eyes were wide awake.
She had no chance of sleeping today.
It was because of the worries that invariably surfaced on the days she hunted a Titan.
The Kraken, and her Skill, Daughter of the Kraken.
At first, she thought Daughter of the Kraken was merely a figure of speech.
That the Kraken was just an abstract metaphor.
In fact, in the Original Work Novel, Personal Skills related to something that did not exist, such as Daughter of Hades or Disciple of the Black Tortoise, appeared all over the place.
But she, too, was now faintly feeling it.
That the Kraken truly exists, and she is truly connected to it in some way.
There is no evidence. She just unconsciously felt that it seemed to be the case.
Paradoxically, however, the fact that there is no evidence is the strongest evidence for the hypothesis.
Because it means it originated from somewhere inside Parang without any external factors, a so-called instinct.
Could it really be an Outer God like Cthulhu or something that she saw on the internet in her past life?
Countless thoughts repeatedly rose and sank in Parang's mind.
Thus, she stayed up all night with her eyes wide open.
#
Four days after the Statue was subjugated, in the South Pacific Ocean.
48 degrees south latitude, 123 degrees west longitude.
In technical terms, the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility; commonly known as Point Nemo.
The loneliest sea, the most isolated sea, the quietest sea.
The sea furthest from any land on Earth.
Diego appeared there holding the Jewel.
There was a peculiar structure in front of him; house-sized blue Jewels were embedded in the ground in a circle, like Stonehenge.
There were eight of them.
Diego planted the Jewel he had brought into the ground, making it nine, and adjusted their positions slightly.
Then, he shrank in size.
He walked toward the center of the Jewels embedded in a circle.
The Floor was lined with Corals that emitted their own light, and it was quite beautiful to see the light spreading in all directions as it refracted through the Jewels.
Step, step, stop.
He stopped right in the center of the circle and knelt on one knee in front of the Stone Slab located there.
The surroundings were tidy, as if Parang and the others had already visited.
Next to the Stone Slab was a Glass Bead that looked brand new.
It was the Weapon Alice used to use.
Parang, who was the last to visit, had carefully polished it.
Alice Melville, 1999. 3. 5. -
A Tombstone with no date of death written on it.
Below it, instead of an epitaph, a four-character idiom was written.
The setting moon illuminating the roof beams.
Moon Shining on the Roof Beams.
The falling moonlight entering the eaves.
It was a phrase expressing longing for a precious friend.
Diego took out a glowing Coral and scattered it around the Tombstone.
The Deep Sea. In a deep place where not even sunlight could reach, moonlight was quietly falling.