Chapter 66: Open Your Eyes. (1)

Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast – 66

EP.66 Open Your Eyes. (1)

Author Note: (It’s better to view this with a white background and black text.)

“Whooooaaa……”

Parang let out a deep sigh after ending the broadcast.

Large and small water droplets emerged from her mouth, bubbling up.

‘In the end, I have to face it, huh……’

It would have been great if Marian’s corpse had appeared while she was exploring the Hive during the broadcast, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Parang was currently located about 700 meters away from the center of the Hive.

There was no wind, but the nearby grass was leaning in one direction.

This meant she had entered the domain of Crino.

Sea lily, or sea feather.

It was named so because it resembled the Korean native flower, nari-kkot.

In English, it’s called a Feather starfish, directly translated to “feather-attached starfish.”

It got its name because it looked like a starfish with feathers attached.

The sea lily also had many other nicknames.

Sea broom, alien life form, what the hell is that, and so on……

And, like many bizarre sea fishes, the sea lily was a gentle being that fed on plankton.

It was also typical for its nature to change 180 degrees when it mutated into an monster fish.

Crino was known as a top-tier predator among monster fishes that could attack mentally.

Generally, monster fishes that were somewhat strong – or rather, those that were “somewhat” strong – had some degree of immunity to mental attacks.

It was only natural, as they all tried to mesmerize others with their flashy appearances in the deep sea, so they had to have some countermeasures.

Some monster fishes have special lenses in their eyes, limit their field of vision, or even abandon their eyes and entrust their bodies to the flow of the water.

Therefore, the sea is quite harsh on mentally attacking monster fishes, and as a result, they occupy the lower levels of the ecological pyramid.

However, there is a limit to this, and if they can control their targets with brainwaves and eat them, they become extremely fearsome.

Add a bit of physical strength to that, and their destructive power becomes unimaginable.

And Crino is precisely that kind of monster fish.

It has the strongest mental attacks in the ecosystem, quite strong physical strength, and the ability to survive and move quickly.

It’s a monster that has everything.

Parang began to plan behind the tombstone, peeking out occasionally.

If she looked carefully, she could see Crino’s arms – one, two, three… all the way up to twenty.

This meant it had been stationed here for over two months.

Before the Slayers’ ascension.

It meant that Crino was there when Marian was transferred to the Hive.

Crino controls the flow of water to attract various things around it.

It’s highly likely that it also attracted Marian’s corpse.

Even so, if it wasn’t another monster fish but Crino that ate it, that would be a good thing.

It would take a considerable amount of time to digest.

Thinking about it, Parang was quite lucky.

In the East Sea, Alexandra’s corpse was stuck between the cans, making it possible to recover, and it seemed possible to recover Marian’s corpse in the Drake Hive as well.

In reality, if a human corpse fell into the sea, especially into the abyssal layer, it would be practically impossible to recover. Like Olivia’s case in the Hong Kong Hive.

After Parang’s initial search, Xiao used a skull to search the entire Hive about three times, but Olivia’s corpse was never found.

It would drift in the sea, get eaten by a monster fish, and then that fish would get eaten by another, and if it encountered a monster fish like Hinus, the probability of recovering the corpse would become zero.

Parang couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity.

‘Kraken can’t be used.’

If it accidentally absorbed Marian, she would have to stay awake for several days.

‘Going inside…’

She absolutely didn’t want to do that. There had to be another way.

‘Should I cut off all the arms first and then disassemble it?’

This seemed like the best method.

Everything about Crino—its mental attacks, mobility, physical strength, and so on—came from its arms. They were the core organs, similar to the propeller of the Hinus.

Just as the formidable Hinus would die if its neural network in the propeller was severed, Crino would also die if its arms were cut off.

This was the standard method for dealing with Crino.

The problem was that only six people in the world could execute this ‘standard method.’

And those six people were skilled enough to hunt Crino without having to cut off its arms.

They could boil it whole, eat it, stomp on it, or even detonate a nuclear bomb… among other methods.

This was Parang’s first time trying to capture Crino without the Kraken.

To be honest, it seemed a bit fun.

Maybe this was how experts felt when they cleared a game under challenging conditions.

Having roughly formulated a plan, Parang swiftly dashed out from behind the tombstone.

And then.

Crino came into Parang’s view.

Its disc-shaped body was obscured by the numerous arms surrounding it.

The twenty or so long, feather-like arms attached to its body swayed and wriggled, disturbing her vision and clouding her consciousness, and their movements were like…

‘Ugh…’

Her vision wavered, and she felt nauseous.

Crino attacked mentally not with ‘light’ but with ‘movement.’

That was also the reason why it could survive in the Drake Hive.

So, it’s okay to look at photos or drawings of Crino, but not videos.

Parang lowered her head for a moment, overwhelmed by the dizzying movements in front of her.

She felt seasick. She felt like throwing up.

What unfolded before her eyes was a moving festival, a dance of paradise, a heavy mirage.

The entire space seemed to be swaying and drawing her towards Crino.

Correction. It wasn’t just seeming that way; it was actually happening.

Crino moved its ten to thirty arms chaotically in the water, distorting the flow around it.

The distorted water flow made Crino’s movements even more prominent, increasing the intensity of its mental attacks, and eventually directing the water flow into its mouth, swallowing defenseless prey.

For this reason, even Parang, who was completely immune to mental attacks, had to struggle when dealing with Crino.

Crino’s attacks didn’t just cause ‘mental damage from skills’; they also involved physical effects.

Parang, who could withstand even mental attacks underwater, had no way to deal with her vision being physically distorted.

Still, being immune to mental attacks from skills, she only felt a bit dizzy.

Given these circumstances, Parang and other Oceanos considered it best to attack Crino without looking at it. They would even turn around and call the Kraken.

But given the current situation, there was no choice.

Parang gritted her teeth and charged towards Crino.

The surroundings became more grotesque as she approached it.

Her vision wobbled like an edited filter, and the surrounding monster fishes either tied themselves in knots if they were long enough or intertwined with each other if they were short.

Without her skills, Parang would have immediately tied herself up and been consumed by Crino in a state of ecstasy.

Parang charged at Crino fiercely, with a bit of emotion.

‘Why did it have to be you, making me go through this trouble?’ she thought.

Whether Crino understood Parang’s feelings or not, it continued to wriggle.

“Uuuuaaaah!!!”

With a loud “Hah!” and a mighty roar, Parang swung her harpoon with all her might.

Fundamentally, Crino was huge.

So, no matter how hard Parang swung her harpoon, she could only knock off one arm at most.

There were still nineteen arms, each about 200 meters long, wriggling and squirming around.

And that’s not all. Crino had incredible regenerative abilities.

Like the monsters from ancient myths that would grow multiple heads or arms whenever they were injured, Crino’s arms would also regenerate into two new ones whenever one was cut off.

In ancient myths or modern media inspired by them, the solution to this problem was to cauterize the wound with fire, but unfortunately, it wasn’t easy for Parang to start a fire underwater.

With the mindset of “if you don’t have teeth, use your gums,” Parang used water droplets to create a massive explosion at the cut end.

Surprisingly, this was a verified method. While it couldn’t completely stop regeneration like cauterization, it could significantly slow it down.

So, Parang continued to cut off Crino’s arms one by one, and finally, she managed to remove all twenty of them.

What was left was the pitifully wriggling stump and the disc-shaped body in the center.

Parang carefully searched for Marian’s corpse, slowly and cautiously cutting open Crino’s belly with her harpoon.

And there she was. The golden-haired beauty was sleeping peacefully, without a single scratch on her body.

“Thank goodness. She’s still in good condition.”

Just as Parang was about to lift her up and take her out of the water.

“Wait a minute.”

How could she be in such good condition?

Feeling a sense of unease, Parang quickly pulled back her hand that was about to lift Marian up.

Suddenly.

Marian’s eyes opened.