65
Chapter 65
After all, the ocean's environments are as varied as the land above, and accordingly, the ecosystems of the creatures residing within differ vastly from sea to sea.
Just as the Cod caught around the North Sea aren't caught off the coast of Hawaii, and the fish of the Philippines' coral reefs aren't caught in the East Sea.
However, this logic does not apply in the Monster Fish Zone.
You can encounter familiar faces anywhere on Earth, regardless of the depth.
That is, unless it's a special environment like an Objet or a Hive.
If forced to make a comparison, the Monsters emerging from the Gates would be a prime example.
You can come across Goblins and Orcs in the deserts of the State of California, as well as in the jungles of the Amazon.
And in special environments, like Dungeons, you can find Goblins and Orcs alongside unique Monsters suited to that area.
Well, since the Goblins and Orcs from the Gates were simply teleported to Earth from their original habitats, it isn't strange to find them anywhere, and actually, if they drop in a place like a desert, they often die shortly after.
Therefore, it's understandable that Monster Fish like Bellua or Brachium are discovered all over the place, in every corner of the Earth.
But when something originally from Earth undergoes Mutation to become a Monster Fish, it's quite difficult to make sense of the situation.
Because in these cases, it truly seems as though they were just mixed together at random.
"This is the perfect example."
Parang tapped the Clownfish Monster Fish next to her, which was about 20 meters in size.
As soon as what it assumed to be prey touched its body, the creature quickly tried to close its split belly to swallow Parang whole.
Parang easily dodged it, wedging her Harpoon vertically into the cross-section of its closing body, and continued her explanation.
"As you know, Clownfish are fish that inhabit the coral reefs of tropical seas. The fact that it exists in the Drake Passage, which is classified as part of the Antarctic Ocean, makes absolutely no sense."
Furthermore, Clownfish are fish that live in shallow waters, at depths of barely 100 meters at most.
Since you have to descend 700 meters below sea level to reach the Monster Fish Zone, a 'Clownfish Monster Fish swimming in the Drake Hive' shouldn't exist, from a purely common-sense perspective.
"But here it is, swimming around as bold as brass. Does seeing this make you feel anything?"
- Uh...
- It's f'ing mysterious, that's for sure
- The ocean is really dangerous, huh?
"Good job."
- Whoa damn LOL
"Continuing my explanation, this Monster Fish is characterized by its Mimicry, tearing its own belly open to act like a Corpse, and then devouring the Monster Fish that come to eat its flesh. If you look inside here......."
Parang grabbed both sides of the split belly with her hands and forced it apart.
Perhaps she tore it past its limit, because black bloody water burst out from the inside with a splash!
- F'ing humans are at it again.......
- Streamer, have you ripped a Monster Fish to death again.......
"No, uh, it's originally like this."
Parang was someone who normally put Monster Fish! Rip and kill! into practice anyway. How could she possibly know where the Clownfish Monster Fish's cross-section ended?
Bertea would definitely know, but since Parang was ignorant about this sort of thing, minor accidents like the one just now happened quite frequently.
'Ah, it's broken....... I did use it a lot, though.'
This was how Monster Fish were treated.
Anyway, the rather bland slaughter broadcast continued on.
If a new face appeared while exploring, she would explain it and butcher it, and if it was a Monster Fish even Parang didn't know, a Heaven of curiosity unfolded in real time.
"The Gills and the roof of the mouth, huh....... I want to slice both of them open, but I can't decide, so I'll take a vote."
It was like this.
It was simple, but the Viewers' reactions were universally positive. If you had ever seen a Tuna dismantling show in real life, you would understand why people were so strangely drawn into this broadcast.
Not to mention, this Tuna was dozens of meters long.
'Tuna.......'
Should I try a Monster Fish mukbang as a special event later?
There was no way Oceanus hadn't attempted to cook Monster Fish over all those long years.
The distinction between inedible and edible Monster Fish had reached a rather clear level, and for some Monster Fish, standardized preparation methods and even recommended recipes were available.
'I should try it once when I get the chance.'
What Monster Fish would be good to prepare? What kind of dish? Sashimi? Grilled? Steamed?
Just imagining it made her mouth water. Surprisingly, delicious Monster Fish were truly delectable.
Since their activity level couldn't be compared to normal fish, the flesh was chewy and the umami flavor was.......
'Gasp.'
Parang reined in her mind, which had briefly drifted off to the dining table.
'Focus. Focus.'
Crino was currently inside the Hive.
What if she let her guard down like last time and it launched another area-of-effect mental attack?
Fortunately, Parang was someone who had learned her lesson through the Brachium shock.
'It might be time to wrap up the stream soon.'
Parang was currently circling the square-shaped Hive from the outside, exploring it in a reverse spiral pattern.
This was to minimize the chances of encountering Crino, who would be in the center.
And sure enough, the closer she got to the center, the more Monster Fish exhibiting abnormal phenomena appeared.
Unnatural and irregular movements.
This was because the number of Monster Fish flailing about in confusion, unable to find their bearings, was increasing exponentially.
To the eyes of the Viewers, it was just a matter of saying, 'Ah, Monster Fish being Monster Fish again,' but Parang had noticed it.
'These Monster Fish aren't acting like Monster Fish at all.' she realized.
Earlier, she had even seen a Water Snake Monster Fish tie its own body into a knot.
'I should just catch one last prey and end the stream.'
Having made a decision internally, Parang searched for her final prey.
'I caught that one last time, and that one lacks impact.......'
Parang was now taking broadcasting elements into account. Previously, it had the feel of a scary public service announcement, showing a Monster Fish and saying, 'Do not enter.'
Now, it was truly becoming a proper 'broadcast'.
In any case, a certain Monster Fish caught her eye.
It was a Mutated Monster Fish from a species of shark commonly called the 'Basking Shark', or 'Mulchi' in native Korean.
The original Basking Shark had an appearance so bizarre it was called a 'Deep Sea phobia trigger'.
To be precise, rather than being bizarre, it could be seen as a fish situated right in the middle of the uncanny valley, straddling the ambiguous boundary between living and non-living things.
The Basking Shark's bizarreness stems from its unnaturally large maw.
When its mouth is closed, it looks like an ordinary shark, but the moment it opens its mouth, which makes up about 70% of its body length, it looks as if an Eyeball and a Tail have been attached to a giant barrel.
Despite its bizarre appearance, its habitat is surprisingly shallow, so there are times when novice Divers get so startled by a Basking Shark popping out of the water that accidents occur.
However, as is often the case with fish that look ferocious, the Basking Shark is a gentle fish that feeds on Plankton.
Even its suction power when its mouth is open isn't that strong. The ghost stories about Divers being sucked inside and dying instantly are all fiction.
Of course, that's the story for the Basking Shark.
The story changes completely when it mutates into a Monster Fish.
"I'll show you directly how it changes."
Parang turned the Camera toward Hinus.
There is probably no need to explain that Hinus's appearance had reached a point where it could no longer be called a fish.
Its torso was hollowed out, looking as if someone had forcibly stretched a fish's skin over an empty toilet paper roll.
Needless to say, the bizarreness was further amplified by the fact that the color of its Scales happened to be identical to human skin.
Its degenerated pupils, devoid of focus and leaving only the whites, bulged out eerily and stared straight ahead, so to the uninformed eye, it was undeniably a Corpse.
Its Fins had also degenerated; the tail Fin was completely gone, and only tiny remnants of the dorsal and pelvic Fins remained, merely asserting that they had once existed.
Furthermore, that violent suction power was enough to make the harmlessness of the original fish pale in comparison.
Hinus was swimming right above the Floor, or rather, slightly above the grass.
"I'll show you how it swims without Fins in a little bit. Right now......."
Parang also knew what it felt like to see Hinus for the first time. That was why she stopped talking, allowing the Viewers to observe quietly.
Hinus was sucking in the surrounding water. And doing so very strongly.
The grass in its path was leaning fiercely toward its mouth as if it were about to be uprooted, and beneath the grass, Monster Fish, both small and large, were constantly being swept out and drawn into Hinus's maw.
And then, as if they had simply passed straight through Hinus's body, they were expelled through its rear, shredded into hundreds of Pieces of Flesh as though ground up by a sharp blade.
There was no need to explain the identity of the crimson liquid constantly spewing from Hinus's rear.
Thinking this was enough, Parang slowly approached Hinus's side.
"Hinus has almost no fat layer or muscle. If you go down just about 10 centimeters below its skin, you'll immediately find its skeleton."
Considering it was a Shark with a body length of around 70 meters, it was safe to say the skeleton was practically right beneath the skin.
As if to prove this, Parang thrust her Harpoon into Hinus's skin and lifted the flesh right up.
"Now, do you see the bone here?"
Just as Parang had said, there really was a bone underneath, but it wasn't shaped with ribs dropping down from a spine like a normal fish.
"Hinus has exactly three bones in its entire body. A cylindrical main skeleton that shapes its entire body, a support, and a Propeller."
Meaning, this cylindrical body was made up of a single, solid bone.
Clearly, this wasn't the form of a normal living creature.
The scrolling speed of the Chat Window was getting faster and faster.
It was probably because Parang was deliberately not showing them what they wanted to see.
- What does the front look like?
- Show us a front shot
- We're screwed, she probably won't show it to us unless we spam that a certain number of times
- Rock
- Ah f'ing hell the ocean is really dangerous
- Rock
- Me
Well, she hadn't planned on teasing them quite that much.
Parang felt a bit sheepish.
It was largely because she had gotten excited and explained even the unnecessary parts.
"No, I'll show you. Calm down. Why are you suddenly acting like......."
- Peak
- Kyaa
- F'ing hell, this is it
- Peak
"Still, I think it's a good idea. I'll try to incorporate it in the future."
The scrolling speed of the Chat Window skyrocketed, piercing through the sky.
It wasn't really Parang's concern, so she lightly ignored the Chat Window and moved in front of Hinus.
"I'm telling you this in advance, but you should never copy this. I can withstand it because it's me, but an ordinary person would be sucked in immediately."
- We know that without you telling us, f'k
- Showing a nuclear test Video and saying Don't try this at home LOL
The inside of Hinus was basically completely empty.
To the point where you could look through its maw from the front all the way to the back.
However, in the center of the empty torso, there was just one foreign object.
- What the f'k is that doing inside its body?
Inside Hinus's body, a Propeller was spinning.
And a sharp one that looked like a blender blade, at that.
Various Monster Fish sucked into Hinus's mouth passed through the Propeller and were instantly ground into pieces of meat, and a small portion of them were being absorbed into a Hole behind the Propeller.
In other words, Hinus was in the middle of eating its prey.
Strictly speaking, Hinus was always eating its prey, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Parang stopped talking and stared blankly at the sight for a moment.
It was for a dramatic effect.
'3......2......1.......'
"As you can see, Hinus eats its prey like this. That spinning Propeller over there is a sharply evolved bone. It grinds the prey to make it easier to consume, while also playing the role of moving Hinus."
Parang moved to the rear of Hinus this time.
Immediately, copious amounts of bloody water washed over Parang, but Parang casually subjected them all to Purification.
"Now, if you look here, this thing supporting the Propeller so it doesn't fall off the torso is the support bone. The inside is empty, and the hollow is filled with nerve bundles. Let's try severing it."
- Huh?
- You f'ing human.......
Unfazed, Parang pulled out her Harpoon, stabbed it deeply into the support bone, and rotated it to bore a Hole.
"These thick things you see inside are all nerves. If I take these like this......."
Snap, snip, snap.
"If you sever them like this, the Propeller will no longer be able to move."
Just as Parang said, when she cut off everything that looked like nerve bundles, the fiercely spinning Propeller stopped working as if it never had.
"If left like this, its metabolism will become impossible, and it'll die on its own. Now, if you look at this Propeller, these muscle bundles over here......."
Thus, at Parang's hands, another Monster Fish met a gruesome end today as well.
Perhaps if they had laws, Parang would be someone subject to summary execution the moment she was caught.
"Alright! Then I will end today's broadcast here. Never go diving, and if you do, absolutely do it during the day! Do not go below 500 meters in depth. Don't follow anything you see underwater, and also......."
Whatever the case, chaotic as always today. Parang's broadcast ended once again.