67
Chapter 67
Marianne Lindbergh.
Her Personal Skill was [Mechanic Panic].
As far as Parang could remember, the Skill went roughly like this.
[ Mechanic Panic(S) ]
[ You acquire a permanent and unremovable Status Effect, 'Madness'. ]
[ You gain a correction to machine crafting. You possess the Skill, 'Inventory'. ]
It was a Skill that perfectly captured this World's law of high risk and high return.
The extreme risk of being forced to live in a state of madness forever was one thing, but the return was truly ridiculous.
Goodness, an Inventory Skill.
Yes. That Inventory. A crazy Skill that allowed one to infinitely store items in a Subspace and eject them at any desired location.
Was it not the ultimate dream of every Hunter in the entire World?
In Hunter fiction, the difference between having the 'Inventory' Skill or not could be seen as causing a gap as vast as that between heaven and earth.
That was how powerful the Skill was. It was just damnably difficult to acquire.
Let alone the Slayers, even Hunter Han Siwoo ultimately failed to obtain the 'Inventory' Skill.
Extracting it into a Scroll was virtually impossible. According to calculations in the story, it required about 80L of blood.
The point was that Marianne was incredibly strong.
With such a fraudulent Skill, she had fully experienced growth events alongside the Slayers.
There were even reviews saying that she could beat Hunter Han Siwoo if she fought fully prepared.
Well, it wasn't exactly Parang's business. What did Marianne's strength have to do with her life, anyway?
Swoosh-!!!
'Crazy......!'
It had everything to do with it.
Parang let out a hollow laugh after barely dodging the Iron Skewer that had Dashed at her with terrifying speed.
Her Head was a mess.
'Why am I fighting a life-or-death battle with this bitch......?'
#
The incident went back to a short while ago.
Flash-
"What the......!"
As soon as Marianne opened her eyes, Parang instinctively stepped back.
Anyone would do the same if what they thought was a Corpse suddenly glared at them right in front of their eyes.
Naturally, her Head was full of confusion.
Why did Marianne open her eyes, was this really Marianne, what should she do...... and so on.
It wasn't particularly strange that questions chased each other's Tails and sprang up one after another.
Because such a ridiculous situation was unfolding before her very eyes.
Parang had a habit of desperately trying to gather information whenever she encountered an unfamiliar situation.
So she stepped forward slightly and began to carefully observe Marianne.
'Oh, damn it.'
Was it said that the eyes are the windows to the soul?
Even in this Hunter World, the eyes held quite a significant meaning.
Because observing them was the most certain way to judge whether someone was possessed by something or not.
And Marianne's eyes, which Parang carefully examined,
'This is a disaster.'
Were blazing with a clear and deep purple hue.
Immediately assuming the worst-case scenario, Parang entered a combat stance.
And, the moment she adjusted her grip on her Harpoon.
Whir-
Swoosh!!!!
A Dimensional Portal opened right behind her Head, and something was ejected at a fearsome speed.
'Gasp!!'
Swish!!
Bending her body almost acrobatically to dodge it, Parang now looked at Marianne, who was standing straight and glaring at her expressionlessly.
A Railgun that had appeared out of nowhere was floating beside Marianne as if escorting her.
It was the thing that had flown out of the Dimensional Portal that just opened.
A Railgun underwater. As expected of a protagonist, it was completely arbitrary.
'I'm really going crazy!!'
Why! Why did this kind of thing only happen to her?
Finding Marianne was good. The fact that she was alive was also incredibly good news.
But why! Why did she have to attack her while being dizzily possessed? Couldn't they just meet in a state where a conversation was possible?
Moreover, of all people, it was Marianne.
The strongest of the Slayers, the Mechanic.
Out of all the Slayers, she was facing the one with the worst possible matchup, and in a one-on-one situation to boot.
Furthermore, she couldn't even summon the Kraken, which accounted for almost 99% of Parang's power.
Because no matter what happened, Parang was in a position where she had to obtain information from Marianne.
If she rashly brought out the Kraken, Marianne's mind could be destroyed to an irreversible level.
Therefore, with misfortune piling upon misfortune, this was Parang's situation.
Using only 1% of her power, she had to capture alive a Hero who had saved the World and become a god, someone who was her worst possible matchup.
And she had to do it alone.
It was enough to make her jump out of her skin in frustration.
#
A little more time passed.
Swoosh-!!!
Whir-!! Whir-!!
After dodging the Railgun that Dashed from the Dimensional Portal with almost acrobatic movements, Parang immediately soared upward to dodge the follow-up fire.
Before she knew it, the number of Railguns floating beside Marianne had surpassed ten.
This meant that ten laser shots were flying straight at Parang.
"Anchoring!!"
Swoosh-
Whack!!!
As the battle intensified, the Skill name involuntarily escaped Parang's lips.
It was something akin to a battle cry.
It was Evidence that she was having a hard time.
Clatter...... crack, pop! Buzz.......
The Harpoon Parang threw flew straight and pierced through one of the Railguns.
That made exactly twenty Railguns she had destroyed so far.
"Retrieve!!"
Swoosh-!
Parang swam at lightning speed to change her position before retrieving her Harpoon.
Slam-! Buzz.......
Another Railgun was smashed, pierced by the returning Harpoon.
Now there were twelve Railguns left.
Swoosh-!!
Ah, now thirteen.
It was enough to drive her absolutely crazy.
'A way...... find a way! Think, Yoo Parang!!'
The only comfort was that Marianne wasn't using her full strength either.
Given her combat style of taking machines or Weapons out of her Inventory to use in battle, she must have consumed a significant portion of her cards during the battle in Hawaii.
Her ultimate move, the Goliath, was nowhere to be seen, and despite having well over a thousand armaments, only Railguns were popping out.
However, it was still overwhelming all the same.
After much deliberation, Parang reached a conclusion.
Continuing this one-on-one with Marianne as things were carried too great a risk.
Unless the wondrous bag of machines belonging to Marianne revealed its Floor, that is.
And as far as Parang knew, there was only one moment when Marianne's bag of machines showed its Floor.
During Chapter 2 of the Original Work, at her first meeting with Han Siwoo.
It was a story from back when Marianne was still an A-Rank Hunter.
Which meant it was something that wouldn't happen now, at a point after the ending.
The conclusion was that things couldn't go on like this. At the very least, she needed to get help from something external.
If even that failed, she would have to pull off the ultimate gamble of taking out the Kraken.
Considering the probability of the gamble succeeding, it would be more accurate to call it a self-destructive move rather than a gamble.
Parang snapped her fingers twice.
She was broadcasting her Camera Screen to Cylo Corporation's internal network.
Less than three seconds later, a jolt of electricity buzzed at the back of her neck.
Tap, tap. Parang tapped the In-ear she was wearing.
An urgent voice came through the Speaker.
"I-Is the person currently caught on the Screen M-Marianne?!"
It was the top executive of Cylo who had conversed with Parang previously. Was he a person capable of making such a voice?
"That's right."
Parang answered dryly.
She didn't really mean to sound like that, but focusing on a conversation while fighting fifteen Railguns desperately aiming only for her wasn't an easy task.
"Anchoring!!"
Crunch!!
"Goodness, to think she was alive....... T-This is......!"
The man's voice was shaking violently. He seemed genuinely shocked.
If she had enough leeway in the current situation, Parang would have humored him, but unfortunately, time was of the essence. Slightly sharp words burst out.
"I-I get it, so please help me out!! At this rate, either she or I will end up dead!!"
He must not have gotten his top executive position at Cylo by drawing straws, as he quickly made a judgment even in a situation where a million question marks should normally be floating above his head.
"U-Understood. You are at the Drake Hive, right?"
"That's right."
Boom!!
Remaining Railguns, seventeen.
"Can you bring Marianne to the surface there? We have an Anesthetic we usually inject when she goes on a rampage. We will drop that."
'Ah!'
Right, there was something like that.
The Anesthetic used in preparation for when Marianne lost her reason due to the Status Effect Madness.
Since it was made exclusively for Marianne, it was an item that exerted an almost unconditional effect limited to her.
Because Marianne's madness was cleanly cured whenever she was near Hunter Han Siwoo, strangely enough, scenes of using this rarely appeared even in the story.
Anyway, if they had that, capturing Marianne alive wouldn't be complete nonsense.
"......Give me the coordinates."
Parang replied with a resolute voice.
"Understood."
"Huuu......."
Whatever, let's just give it a try.
She immediately started soaring toward the surface.
Twenty-four Railguns and Marianne fiercely chased Parang.