Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Connecting the Arks
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“Ugh, blub blub……?”
Lee Ha-yul, clinging to my back, flailed desperately.
She was being a bit overdramatic.
Unlike me, Ha-yul had been given goggles and an oxygen tank. Her prosthetic leg had even been swapped out for a “Noah Workshop special swim fin.” It was the kind of item that would get SR rank in a gacha game.
That was true.
The only exception was that the water we were diving into wasn’t ordinary H₂O—it was pure poison, the kind that would make a reactor pool after a meltdown look like holy water. Aside from that, there was no reason for Ha-yul to be thrashing about.
“Ha-yul.”
The regressor’s gentle voice resonated softly through the water, carried on my aura.
“Did you watch that <Evangelion> I recommended last time? The pilots melt in that orange liquid, right? If you don’t get your head straight, you’ll end up with nothing but your diving suit left—your whole body will dissolve.”
“……! ……!”
“Draw up your aura and wrap it around your entire body. Keep reminding yourself who you are. If it’s too hard, think about your anger toward your father.”
Of course, if it really got dangerous, I’d protect Ha-yul myself.
But I couldn’t keep her in the nest forever. I was the type of instructor who trained my guildmates and comrades pretty harshly.
“You can think about your mother too.”
“Ugh……?”
“The doll you always carried from Japan. Even if you disguised it as a housekeeper, I know it was really your mother.”
“…….”
“If you disappear here, that doll will never move again.”
Bubbles.
Bubbles rose quietly from behind my back. The water in them felt unusually cold.
Just like in the other turns, today’s Ha-yul adapted to the training quickly.
Her fingertips had turned pale and translucent, but the existential corruption hadn’t spread beyond her forearms.
There were no signs of her turning into a ‘frog’ either.
“Good. Well done.”
“…….”
“Always think about the existence you carry. Compared to that, the void’s poison has nothing to do with your life.”
Nod.
I felt a small nod against the nape of my neck.
It might not compare to seawater, but every human digs a well of darkness a fathom deep in their heart, and I trusted the depth of that well more than the vastness of the ocean.
Swish-.
By the time Ha-yul had regained some composure, a monster swam past us, just ten meters ahead.
It was shaped like a shark.
-Roooaaarrr.
Ha-yul jolted in surprise.
It was understandable. Sharks didn’t normally roar “roooaaarrr,” nor were they made of transparent glass. And they certainly didn’t grow to nearly twenty meters long.
In this void ecosystem, where no life should survive, a shark larger than a bus—a pack of fifteen megalodons, long extinct on modern Earth—swam leisurely by.
-Roooaaarrr……
-Roooaaarrr.
“…….”
Ha-yul gripped my neck with both hands (she’d picked up some weird habits after a few drinks with the Highway Management Corps leader) and stared blankly at these Jurassic Jaws.
Squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze.
Her ten fingers pressed into my neck like piano keys.
It wasn’t some bizarre taste transplanted from the Corps leader—it was Morse code.
‘Amazing.’
That was the general translation.
Squeeze.
‘Pretty.’
Blub-blub-.
The transparent megalodons showed no interest in us and vanished into the deep sea.
The ripples from their tails reached us and burst cutely right in front of our noses.
“Ha-yul. Attach the puppet strings to the bow here. I’ll handle the swimming.”
“…….”
“Make sure to lay them out generously. If they snap, you’ll have to come back and reattach them.”
Squeeze. Whether it was my imagination or not, the pressure of her neck massage increased.
After that, the work proceeded smoothly.
We installed puppet strings from Ark 1, stretching them long to connect to Ark 4. Like laying undersea cables.
“Haah—puhaah……!”
We took breaks at each ark—three hours at the shortest, half a day at the longest.
Even superhuman awakeners with incredible recovery couldn’t take the great deluge’s mega-void lightly.
After hours of clinging to me to endure the underwater environment, Ha-yul panted for breath.
‘Exhausted, drained.’
“Are you okay?”
‘Yeah. But need a bit more rest.’
Even during breaks, Ha-yul clung tightly to my left hand and wouldn’t let go.
It was only natural. For safety reasons, we hadn’t brought the ‘housekeeper doll’ on this mission.
Whether through sign language or Morse code, her only real-time conversation partner was me.
An extremely dangerous mega-void environment.
Severely limited communication.
For Ha-yul, it triggered old traumas.
The gray days treated as a “nonexistent child” by her father, the former Busan mayor Jeong Seong-guk—essentially imprisoned.
I was the one who’d brought the kid, who’d tried to end it all with suicide, back from Japan.
‘Oppa.’
“…….”
‘Living is so hard.’
Ha-yul burrowed into my chest like a baby kangaroo.
I spread my palm and stroked her head.
Splash. Swish. Each time my hand passed, her water-soaked hair dried softly under my aura.
A person’s palm can cover many things.
For instance, how Ha-yul subtly mixed up ‘o’ and ‘a’ in ‘oppa,’ mumbling it somewhere in between whenever she called me that.
Or how we never, ever mentioned it.
“…….”
“…….”
Embracing.
A mark of connection far older than a handshake.
For a while, we shared human body heat in that position.
9
The awakeners in charge of Ark 4 were shocked by our arrival.
“My god. You swam through that water? Just now?”
“Yes. We’ve connected the bows with puppet strings. I’m continuously infusing them with aura to keep them from snapping, but the currents might make the ships vibrate strangely. Please don’t panic if that happens.”
“Y-Yes…….”
“We knew the café owner wasn’t ordinary…….”
The awakeners responded hesitantly, completely rattled by our mad stunt.
I heard all the reports from Ark 4, then dove right back in toward the next destination.
‘As expected. It’s much better to start subjugating the great deluge early, even if it means pushing ourselves.’
I thought as I swam through the transparent depths.
Ha-yul was already getting used to it, splashing along with my movements.
‘In the last turn, the other arks took heavy damage. Day 10 was probably the mental breaking point.’
We connected the arks one by one, swiftly but not rushed.
Anyone with historical knowledge would recognize my strategy instantly. It was the “linked ships” tactic from the Battle of Red Cliffs in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
It doomed Cao Cao to utter defeat, but unfortunately, there was no Zhuge Liang or southeast wind here. Waiting for the great deluge monsters meant overwhelming annihilation.
Rumble……!
Of course, something like a southeast wind did exist in the great deluge.
Currents.
“Ugh, blub, bluuub……!”
Whenever intense currents surged in the water typhoon, Ha-yul and I were tossed around like driftwood.
Sometimes we got pushed thousands of meters.
Finding direction in that environment was acrobatic impossibility.
I relied solely on my superhuman senses honed through countless regressions, my Perfect Memory ability, and aura scattered like radar in all directions, groping my way along the sea route.
Toward the center. Deeper into the center.
-Roooaaarrr.
-Roooaaarrr, ooo……
The closer we got to the eye of the storm, the more underwater monsters appeared.
Not just megalodons. Leviathan Melvillei, Dunkleosteus, Cameroceras.
Lifeforms that once ruled Earth’s ancient seas swam on, borrowing monster bodies.
As if Earth’s true life wasn’t in your human realm, but right here.
-Kyaaak!
Some showed interest in humanity, a much later evolutionary junior.
Ancient ferocious whales gaped wide and charged.
Each time, I gladly drew my staff-sword and demonstrated Moses’ miracle firsthand.
The profane lifeforms, unrecorded in scripture, perished witnessing divine power. Proof that seniority meant nothing in harsh nature.
‘Oppa. The best.’
Repelling sharks and whales from millions of years ago that occasionally ambushed us, we finally connected all twelve arks.
We finished on day 9.
Just as the sun was setting.
Crimson sunset layered red over the great deluge’s storm.
Unlike the sea, which only caught sunlight on the surface, the towering typhoon soaked it in with its whole body.
The entire deep sea was dyed in sunset glow.
In the heart of those depths, the spiderwebs Ha-yul and I had strung reflected the red, twinkling like the Milky Way.
“…….”
On the way back to Ark 1, carried on my back, Ha-yul couldn’t tear her eyes from the sunset in the storm.
Even this void hell, which had slaughtered countless humans and stood ready for more—could humans be designed to find it beautiful?
Life was harsh.
“Welcome baaack…….”
After ending our long underwater ordeal and returning to Ark 1, Noah greeted us.
Her eye condition had worsened—both eyes were bloodshot red.
It threw me off inwardly. Had Sim A-ryeon still not healed her?
“You survived like street performers. You really found all eleven other arks and connected them with puppet strings one by one……?”
“Yes. Next turn, I’ll find a wiser way. Fortunately, the void poison wasn’t as bad on the other arks.”
“Hmm…….”
Noah eyed us sideways.
Her gaze wasn’t on me, but Ha-yul. Who had switched from turtle to sloth mode, plastered to me.
“You two have gotten even closer…….”
“We swam stuck together for nearly a week. Anyone would end up enemies or best friends.”
I tapped Ha-yul’s head. She openly rested her head on my shoulder like a cat pillow, pleased.
“Now we just maneuver the arks to bind the great deluge, and it’s done. Oh, anything happen while we were gone?”
“Well…….”
I half-expected something like, “You not dying is the big news.”
But reality differed. Noah’s bloodshot eyes dodged mine.
A sudden chill crawled up my neck, lowering my voice tone.
“Corps leader. What happened?”
“Hm. Awakener Undertaker. You know we thoroughly checked the identities of everyone aboard our ark…….”
“Of course. They volunteered to sacrifice for East Asia instead. Especially on this dangerous Ark 1—we only selected verified people.”
“But, uh. I checked the list twice myself…… Looks like there was a stowaway…….”
Stowaway?
I tilted my head.
Plenty fled despite incentives, but no one illegally boarded. Who would?
No, more importantly.
“You’re saying our awakeners failed to detect a stowaway beforehand?”
“…Strictly speaking, ‘illegally boarded’ isn’t quite right. Witnesses said they came to and suddenly the person was aboard… Like they sprouted from the floor…….”
The chill deepened intensely.
“Where’s this passenger now?”
“We put them in Isolation Zone 13. Only empty spot left. Though ‘put’ is generous—they went in willingly……. Want to meet them?”
I did.
Isolation Zone 13 had been wiped out on flood day 1. Water still hadn’t drained—victims’ shirts and pants floated like tropical fish in an aquarium.
In the middle of that water.
Go Yo-ri knelt demurely.
“…….”
“Oh?”
Go Yo-ri smiled brightly.
“Hello, Undertaker Guild Master? Long time no see.”
My body began to tremble like a little polar bear facing a Malay bear.