Chapter 43. Sinkhole(?) Vlog.
Chapter 43. Sinkhole(?) Vlog.
My feelings for Laila grew painfully honest, and I couldn't sleep that night.
Of course... missing a few days of sleep doesn't strain my body, but...
"Are you really going to be fine with just the two of you? Don't you need someone to assist..."
"Miss Reina, just the two of us will be more than enough, you know?"
"Ah, yes..."
Just before boarding the helicopter provided by the Takamine family, Reina and her retainers came to see us off.
But unlike yesterday, Reina seemed strangely deflated.
'Did Reina drink a lot yesterday too?'
"Let me confirm one last time. We just need to bring back the monster's heart, right?"
"Yes, we will appraise the additional monster remains at a fair price and purchase them."
"Right."
"Please be careful... All we know is that there is a powerful 'fire energy' in that place. Nothing else has been revealed..."
As I climbed into the helicopter first, Laila smiled brightly and waved to Reina.
"Miss Reina, you know, right?"
"Yes..."
What did the two of them talk about?
They seemed oddly close(?).
"Laila, what did you talk about with Reina?"
"Hero! You mustn't ask about a conversation between women!"
"Ah, really...?"
Watching Laila beam a pure smile at Song Hoon, Reina felt a different kind of fear.
---
[ World's Strongest Hero : Japan Vlog ]
[What? They went to Japan?]
[Is this a honeymoon?]
[?]
[The guy above me, get lost]
Right before starting the stream, I had discussed with Reina how much we could reveal.
We'd agreed to reveal up to the point that we'd received a request from the Takamine Group.
She asked me not to mention that the family head was in a coma.
"We received a commission, so we're going to hunt the monster on Mount Fuji."
The gate on Mount Fuji was something the general public didn't know about, and it was theirs, obtained through proper legal procedures.
[First Baekdu Mountain, now Mount Fuji;;]
[Mountain Slayer lolololol]
[But what did they offer you?]
I shrugged at the last viewer's question and answered.
"I'm going to earn money."
[Ah... Of course you are...]
[From what I can see, this bastard is just happily jumping at a Neotube opportunity lol]
[Even though you're already loaded?]
There were also viewers among them with a particularly cold, sharp gaze.
After idly chatting with the viewers for about an hour, we arrived at the crater of Mount Fuji.
The helicopter landed. At the summit of Mount Fuji, there was no one but Laila and me.
"What is this place...?"
There was supposed to be the crater of Mount Fuji here.
A place where rocks, volcanic ash, and the traces of ancient time remained.
But right now, what stood in that spot...
"There's nothing here..."
To be precise, it had been erased.
As if someone had taken a giant eraser and swiped away the center of Mount Fuji.
No color, no light, not even a shadow.
"A black hole? No... Should I call it a sinkhole?"
[Wow... what is that?]
[That's seriously unsettling]
[That part looks like someone photoshopped it out]
"So the gate is inside this, right?"
[ Saintess's Foot Wiper has donated 10,000 Watts! ]
- I feel like I've learned something I wasn't supposed to know...
[Gasp... Are people in suits going to come for us now?]
[Lololol, against this many of us?]
I wondered just how the hell we were supposed to enter.
And then, I quickly resolved that worry.
"Laila, shall we go in?"
I decided to simply jump in.
[I realize this every time, but I've never seen anyone as reckless as this bastard]
[But he never gets burned, so that's fine lol]
[You can't see the bottom and you're just going to jump?]
"Laila, that? Or just go?"
"It's not flying, we're jumping down, so let's just go!"
As Laila said that, she threw herself into my arms.
A warm, all-embracing acceptance...
"..."
"...Hero, aren't you going to jump?"
[Hero, what are you doing?]
[Is this bastard shooting a movie or something?]
[Stop indulging your selfish feelings, you fucker!!!]
"Ah, I'll jump."
I moved my feet toward it.
"Here we go, the world's first sinkhole vlog!"
Holding Laila tightly, I leaped without hesitation.
We fell for a long while, yet I could see nothing around us, so much so that I couldn't even tell if we were falling or rising.
[I can't see a single thing]
[All I can hear is the wind lololol]
After falling for several minutes, I sensed something strange.
We were plummeting at least several kilometers below the surface, into complete darkness...
"Why is the communication fine?"
The voice, the HUD, the viewer chat—everything was functioning normally.
[It's expensive gear]
"No, by a rough estimate, I've been falling for several minutes now. Does that make any sense?"
[Huh...?]
[Now that you mention it]
Just as I was pondering how far we had to fall, we hit the ground.
— KWAAANG!!!
I landed on my back, still holding Laila in my arms.
I brushed off the debris on my body and got up, but I still couldn't see a single thing around me.
— Squelch...
"Ugh... What is this sticky stuff..."
"Hmm... This way, we can't see anything, can we?"
As Laila chanted a spell, several of the spheres that had melted the tank cannons appeared.
And the spheres emitted light, illuminating our surroundings.
[Ah shitttt]
[Gross, you fuck]
The reason the ground was sticky...
Around us, hundreds, thousands of animal carcasses were scattered everywhere.
Deer, wolves, foxes, bears, wild boars...
[Did they fall down this hole?]
[Kinda sad...]
No.
I examined the carcasses closely, but something felt different.
They weren't bodies that had died from a fall.
'If they'd fallen from this kind of height, they would've been smashed to pieces...'
"These... why are they so gaunt?"
[?????]
[Do you think there's a vampire living here? lolol]
[No way, you idiot]
"It feels like their vitality was sucked out without a single external wound..."
The condition of the bodies was too intact to be the work of a monster.
"Let's walk a bit first."
The viewers watched the stream relying solely on the spheres Laila had conjured.
[This feels like playing a horror game]
[Something strange might jump out any moment lol]
[ Saintess's Foot Wiper has donated 10,000 Watts! ]
- Hey, behind you, behind you, behind you!!!!
At the sudden donation sound, I whipped my head around, but there was nothing.
"...?"
[What an idiot lolololololol]
[Look at him turning around all startled lolololol]
I walked for a long while, then suddenly looked up at the sky.
I couldn't see even the smallest speck of light.
[ Saintess's Foot Wiper has donated 30,000 Watts! ]
- Hey, for real, there's something behind you, you fuck
"Ah, you're baiting me again..."
I was not such a dumbass that I'd fall for the same thing twice.
I casually ignored the viewer's donation and kept walking.
But the viewer chat kept popping up on my goggles.
[There really is something, you moron!!!!]
[Look behind you, you idiot]
"Huh?"
I glanced back and saw something floating in the air.
It was a blue will-o'-the-wisp.
"What's this?"
"Hero, I feel a strange energy."
"It feels a little different from mana..."
It felt similar to the holy power Laila possessed.
The will-o'-the-wisp continued to move in front of us and gradually drifted away.
"It's telling us to follow it, right?"
"Shall we go?"
[Fuck lololololol]
[Is this a hidden quest?]
As we followed the will-o'-the-wisp, I felt the surroundings gradually brighten.
And they grew hotter and hotter.
— Crackle... Crackle...
The will-o'-the-wisp grew larger and larger, then slid away into one side of the wall.
And before our eyes, a crimson eye wreathed in flames appeared.
[Ah, I've seen this in a game]
[A monster?]
The monster stared directly at us without any reaction.
"Mortal."
"...?"
The monster spoke.
In perfect Korean.
No, wait—the eye was the one speaking?
"Laila, that thing just spoke, right?"
"Yes..."
In a world where supernatural powers had emerged, communication through magic was entirely possible.
But this monster was articulating in pure 'Korean'.
[??? Did that thing just talk?]
[Fuck lolololol, this is why I can't quit this stream]
[Every single thing he does is legendary lololol]
Monsters sometimes conversed among themselves using their own language systems.
That was a perfectly plausible story.
Since even animals could communicate with each other.
"But how in Korean..."
Until now, there had never been a single monster capable of communicating with humanity.
When I first emerged from a gate, they had initially mistaken me for a monster with an established language system too.
"A being worthy of sating my demonic energy has finally arrived. Frail though you are... your form is distinct, and your essence is strong."
[Frail?]
[Lolololol, this guy's funny]
[Hero's mysterious frail arc lolololol]
"You want to eat us?"
"Yes. Your essence is incredibly... unique. And that woman by your side is... a special delicacy I have never seen in this place."
The crimson eye began to split, and something tore through it and emerged.
A humanoid monster clad entirely in flames stepped through the fire.
"The master of this place who killed his mother and was slain by his father. The lord of destruction and fire."
[He looks like someone I've seen in a Soulslike game...]
[Wow, but he looks even stronger than the Baekdu Mountain monster?]
"I have awakened at last from a long slumber to take revenge on the abominable descendants of the father who sealed me."
"..."
"I shall use you as nourishment and descend upon the present world."
[He talks way too fucking much]
[I really wanna skip]
[This bastard's already on internet news articles lololol]
We were completely indifferent to the guy's declarations.
No matter how grandiose his words, it all came down to killing us in the end.
"Did you get sealed because you talked too much...?"
Well, it doesn't matter.
In the end, this guy would go down just the same once he got a beating.