Chapter 90: Deep Under the Sea
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 90: Deep Under the Sea
I was a bit nervous when we first entered the water, but seeing Yuseoha looking down at me with a beaming smile as if I were adorable pricked my pride, so I didn't let it show.
Gradually, the water rose past my nose, my eyes, and finally over the top of my head, but I felt no discomfort breathing. Only that pleasant, low-frequency humming vibration one hears underwater enveloped me.
"Starting with the coral reefs."
I heard Yuseoha’s voice. It was fascinating how clearly the sound traveled through the water.
Yuseoha’s legs had already transformed into a fish tail. Just as I was beginning to ponder the philosophical dilemma of how one would even manage insertion with a tail like that, a forest of the sea unfolded before my eyes.
And in that forest...
—Krawwwwww!
A predator was bound to appear.
With a cry that made my skin crawl even underwater, an unidentified creature, easily over ten meters long, began to rise slowly from the bottom of a coral cliff. Instinctively, I hid behind Yuseoha.
"Don't be afraid. It won't attack us," Yuseoha said with a gentle smile, trying to reassure me. I suddenly felt a twinge of guilt for calling her a Pink Bitch.
"Because it has nothing to eat."
"I want out! I want out! Take me back to the surface!"
I grabbed a handful of Yuseoha’s hair and yanked.
"I-It was a joke...! I was just joking...!"
That crazy cyber-whore Pink Head was leaving scratches on my fragile heart.
"It might look like that, but it’s a gentle creature. It eats coral."
"It eats coral?"
I watched as the armored, monstrous fish began to crunch and munch on a coral reef the size of a building.
"Just like that."
"It eats so much, is there even any coral left?"
"It grows fast. Look over there, that’s a coral in its growth phase."
Yuseoha pointed with her fingertip. Looking closely, I saw a tiny, cute-looking coral growing all by itself.
Wait, hold on.
It’s growing?
The coral was growing so fast that I could see the change just by blinking. It really hit home that I was living in a fantasy world.
"When a large coral reef nearby disappears, other corals absorb mana and grow rapidly."
It was too far away to judge the exact size, but I could see a piece of coral that was at least the size of my head grow to the size of my torso in no time. And it kept growing.
"How does it get nutrients?"
"Geothermal energy from underground. The roots of the coral reach all the way down to the lava layer."
Thermal energy and nutrients felt like two different things, but since this was a fantasy world, I figured I should just let it slide.
"Then isn't it incredibly deep?"
"Legend says the Goddess herself planted the roots of the coral. The coral absorbs the geothermal energy from the planet's interior, converts it into mana and nutrients, and then it flows out to the living creatures like that."
Where Yuseoha pointed, something even larger than the giant fish from before lay on the seabed as if dead. Countless fish were swarming around it, tearing at its flesh.
It wasn't even magic water; it seemed like 'mana' alone could explain every single phenomenon here.
"So you're saying this coral is the starting point of the ocean's ecosystem?"
"...There's seaweed too. Ah, is this too difficult? Do you know what seaweed is?"
This Pink Head seemed to think I was a blockhead just like her. I hadn't learned it in school, but I at least knew that much.
"Yeah! The stuff that does photosynthesis using light!"
"...There is light, I suppose."
Yuseoha started to say something but then clamped her mouth shut. I didn't like how this damn airhead Pink Bitch was trying to measure the limits of my intelligence.
If we were on the surface right now, I would have made her get on all fours and spanked her for looking down on me so arrogantly, but since we were underwater, I had to endure it.
Observing the outer layers of the marine ecosystem was quite an enjoyable experience.
It was a bit intimidating to see that the adult versions of the fish that usually ended up on my dinner table started at a minimum of one meter, but since I was a superior apex predator, I started to look down on them as mere food.
I flicked the forehead of an orange fish that had the nerve to start circling me.
"You shouldn't bully the fish."
"He came at me first!"
Yuseoha kept her mouth shut as if she didn't know how to explain.
"Just like you shouldn't hit people passing by, you shouldn't hit fish either."
It was a pathetic analogy that clearly showed her lack of parenting experience.
"Then what about 'Mom,' who I can hit whenever I want?"
"...!"
Yuseoha’s eyes went wide as if she were experiencing culture shock.
"T-That's... only when we're alone."
"Then when we're alone, I can do whatever I want with Seoha-mom, right?"
"Y-Yes..."
I really liked the sight of this perverted big sister nodding shyly. Her small chest was a flaw, but for the sake of variety, someone like her could definitely satisfy my needs.
"Really? I can do absolutely anything I want?"
"...Yes."
Yuseoha answered, shrinking back slightly.
"Heh~ I see. So Seoha-mom is like a bitch I can do whatever I want with~?"
"Y-Yes..."
She was so easy it almost made me yawn. I reached out and ran my hand along her side, wrapping my arm around her waist as she clung to me.
"Then should I treat you like a Pet Mom, Seoha Noona?"
"P-Please do."
I wondered just how much this person was willing to allow; she was casually ignoring all the reactions I expected. She should have been saying it was getting a bit much or that it was impossible, but since she kept shouting "Yes, Yes!", I ended up racing ahead like a train with no brakes.
"Okay, got it. I'll raise you as my pet!"
Instead of saying anything, Yuseoha just blushed shyly and nodded. It felt like my house-playing was heading in a strange direction, but that was a problem for my future self to deal with.
Anyway, after exchanging some meaningless nonsense with Yuseoha, we both seemed to snap out of it, and a strange silence lasted for a few minutes.
Even during that time, we continued to descend deeper into the ocean.
"I'll teach you how to hear the voices of the fish."
"...Is that possible?"
"Yes. It's difficult, but you'll be able to get the gist of it."
At Yuseoha’s gesture, a two-meter-long fish with four legs that had been swimming in the distance approached us. It looked more like an unidentified creature than a fish.
"Put your hand on it."
I felt like if I put my hand out and got bitten, Jeong Yong-hwan’s body would evaporate from the ankle up, but I didn't want to show any weakness to Yuseoha, whom I was currently treating like a submissive female.
It felt slimy, but nothing else happened. When I looked at Yuseoha, she gave a bright smile and gently overlapped her hand on top of mine.
In that moment.
—Hand is cold...
I heard a voice. No, it wasn't a voice. It would be more accurate to say I 'realized' it. It wasn't something I could hear with my ears. But I heard it. I couldn't see it, but I saw it.
It was a completely different sense. All my senses were perceiving it, yet it couldn't be called information coming from all my senses.
—Cold... It hurts...
I pulled my hand away without realizing it. The fish shook its head from side to side and swam away into the distance.
It was strange to say I 'heard' it. It was more accurate to say I 'came to know' it.
"How was it? Did you hear it?"
"...It said it was cold."
Yuseoha looked at me with surprised eyes and then gave a little smile.
"It seems you have a talent for taming magical beasts or monsters."
"Oh!"
For someone like me who was always starved for praise about having talent, this kind of compliment was essential for my well-being.
"But why did it say it was cold?"
"Thousand-Year Ice Essence."
Yuseoha answered as if it were obvious and then gestured to another passing fish. No, it was a snake. Or maybe a centipede. Hundreds of leg-like cilia were wriggling as it headed toward us.
Goosebumps broke out all over my body.
"Good girl. She won't bite."
"No way, absolutely not! Not even if I die!"
The crazy monster was approaching, waving hundreds, no, thousands of cilia or legs. I grabbed Yuseoha’s hair.
"Tell it to go away! Tell it to get lost! I'm going to get mad! I'll kill it! I'm really going to get mad!"
"S-She's a good... good...!"
Good, my ass! A monster that shattered my mental state just by existing was approaching! And the closer it got, the more desperate I became.
"You bitch! Get rid of it now! You're supposed to follow my orders! You stupid mom!"
I didn't want to go this far, but I had no choice since I was on the verge of being raped by a giant six-meter-long centipede-fish.
I pounded on Yuseoha’s womb with all my might as I vented my anger.
"Ugh...! H-Hic... I-I'll do it... I'll send it away..."
With a trembling voice, Yuseoha surrendered, and the disgusting creature—whether it was flagella or cilia—turned its body and went back the way it came.
There were so many normal-looking creatures (pseudo-fish) passing by, so why did she have to call that one? Watching the monster's back as it moved further away, I couldn't help but collapse with a sigh of relief.
"...If you ever call something like that again, I'm not playing with Seoha Noona anymore! I'll ignore you! I'll completely ignore you! I won't play with you!"
I growled at Yuseoha while trying to calm my racing heart.
Yuseoha’s shoulders slumped.