Chapter 74: Mad Triangle (1)

Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast

EP.74 Mad Triangle (1)

The edge of Siberia. A frozen land, a world of white.

Beneath the frigid permafrost of the Far East, incongruously, there is a bunker.

There, Yu Parang wakes up.

“Ugh… hmm.”

The clock shows half past eight in the morning.

‘What time would it be back in Korea….’

Parang tries to calculate with her groggy mind, but gives up out of laziness.

‘I should arrive in Korea before lunchtime.’

In this rural backwater where Elvira lives—actually, it can’t even be called a backwater. Since no one lives here except Elvira, it would be more accurate to call it the middle of nowhere—there’s obviously no luxurious facility like a warp gate.

To get to Korea, she has no choice but to swim.

Parang mentally ticks the clock forward and realizes this is the last possible moment to depart.

So she skips the breakfast Elvira would have made her, dives into the sea, and starts swimming hard towards Korea.

And so, she arrives in Korea.

Popping up in the waters off Pohang, she opens the door to her dear home sweet home and ta-da! It’s nine in the morning.

In reality, it took about five hours.

‘The appointment is at two o’clock, so….’

She has more time than expected.

‘If I’d known, I should have just eaten breakfast before leaving.’

Her stomach grumbles. It’s only natural after five hours of non-stop super-fast swimming on an empty stomach.

Just thinking about it makes her imagine steaming Russian home cooking right before her eyes.

But what can she do? Parang holds back tears as she opens the refrigerator, takes out all the remaining side dishes, and roughly mixes them with rice to eat.

Just as she’s about to finish gobbling down a bowl of rice,

Bzzzt!! Bzzzt!!

‘Huh?’

Bzzzt!! Bzzzt!!

Her phone vibrates fiercely to notify her of a message, and when she checks, it’s from Yuna.

*Yuna: Hey hey*

*Yuna: (Photo)*

*Yuna: Is this a monster?*

The two have become close enough to speak informally in private.

Parang looks closely at the photo, and it’s… something.

As she has guessed, the photo Yuna sent is of the submarine that the Association was controlling.

At first, even Yuna thought, ‘Oh, it’s a submarine.’ But when more than twenty identical ones popped up from somewhere, she wondered if it might be a monster and contacted Parang.

She might argue, ‘Come on, no matter how you look at it, with that appearance, it can’t be a monster, right?’

Well, it clearly looks like a machine, a submarine.

Moreover, looking at Yuna’s explanation,

*Yuna: I saw it while wandering around the East Sea at dawn, it makes a buzzing sound, moves with propellers, and when you break it, it goes boom, crackle, and sinks.*

No, this is just a machine. Didn’t she herself unconsciously use the expression ‘when you break it’?

*Parang: Then it’s just a machine, isn’t it?;*

However,

*Yuna: No, it could be a monster.*

Parang was about to type ‘What nonsense is that?’ but paused.

Thinking carefully, there’s… no particular reason it couldn’t be a monster.

‘Ah, damn, I don’t know.’

Even Parang, the self-proclaimed monster expert, feels like it… could possibly be a monster.

It’s long been revealed to the world through Parang’s broadcasts that judging whether something is a monster or not based on its appearance is meaningless.

There are plenty of monster that look even more machine-like than this.

There are even monster that are actually machines. Of course, this is still a highly debated topic in academic circles.

So Parang stops her enthusiastically moving spoon, hesitates for a moment, and then,

*Parang: I’m not sure;;*

She decides to answer honestly.

The sea is like this.

They say you can know ten fathoms of water but not one fathom of a person’s mind?

At least in this world, that’s nonsense.

Clatter- Clatter-

Having finished a bowl of rice in no time, Parang picks up her phone and carefully looks at the photo Yuna sent.

‘She said she saw it while exploring the East Sea at dawn….’

It seemed worth taking a day to go around and look for it herself.

‘Hmm, but….’

Her schedule is a bit tighter than she thought.

Tomorrow, she has to go explore another Hive, and after returning from there and finishing her dive, it’ll be about time for the ‘evidence’ to be repaired.

And then she’ll be busy doing something with the clues that come from there.

If she had to find a suitable time, it would be tonight.

‘I should go check it out once.’

Parang roughly sets her schedule and checks the time again.

It’s time to leave soon.

Where to?

To Seoul.

It’s the day she’s supposed to meet Branch Manager Seo Sunwoo.

‘Surely it won’t be that confusing double conversation again this time….’

Parang shudders slightly, recalling the pain of the past.

Of course, her eyes fall on the pen she used to write a memo on the calendar last time.

‘Should I bring one….’

So, picking up the pen and putting it in her waterproof bag for outings, Parang dives into the sea with a slightly uneasy feeling and heads towards Seoul.

#

Meanwhile, in Daejeon. Silo Corporation Materials Research Institute.

WHAM-!!

…Well, not quite that dramatic, but someone opened the door with a somewhat ambiguous intensity.

In other words, they had the desire to fling the door open dramatically, but to avoid inconveniencing the people inside, they opened it just forcefully enough to give the impression of opening it gently.

With a thud, the door opened and someone entered.

Jet-black hair and golden eyes.

An S-rank Production Hunter and one of the few hunters officially designated as a ‘Collaborating Hunter’ by Silo.

It’s Shin Yuna.

As the gazes of all the researchers in white coats focused on her, she strode in purposefully and then-

She brought a dozen or so rolled-up papers, spread them out on the largest table in the center, and began unfolding them one by one.

The researchers who were already acquainted with her cautiously approached, looking at the contents of the unfolded papers with a mix of curiosity and skepticism, as if observing a madwoman.

One by one, they wiped away their curiosity and regarded her with 100% “she’s lost it” looks.

What she had brought were blueprints and design plans.

The blueprint of a heavily armed submarine, about 100 meters in length.

At a glance, you can see one, two, three… so many gun barrels you can’t even count them all, and the energy efficiency is shot to hell thanks to that damned steampunk design, not to mention countless other problems.

But the researchers, looking into Yuna’s eyes, already sensed their fate.

Those crazed eyes, it’s been a while since we’ve seen them.

Ah, I want to quit.

“Let’s build this.”

Yuna’s eyes were already blazing with fiery determination.

#

Brrrrr-

Splash!!

Parang poked her head out from under a bridge over the Han River.

Current time, twelve o’clock.

A leisurely arrival.

She arrives at the meeting place with a slightly nervous heart.

‘Huh? This isn’t the Association building?’

The meeting place she arrived at isn’t the Association, but some fancy restaurant.

The entrance isn’t flashy, but its elegance and neatness give it an even more upscale feel, and the exterior of the building is the same.

Parang, who loves delicious food, occasionally enjoys fine cuisine at upscale restaurants when she has business in Seoul. From her past experiences, she could tell without a doubt that this place was extremely expensive and high-class.

‘Right. Surely they wouldn’t do that sort of thing while eating.’

Somewhat reassured, Parang stepped into the restaurant.

As she went further in, the air of luxury became even more apparent.

After mentally noting the restaurant’s location, Parang followed the staff’s guidance deeper inside.

And then she arrived at what was clearly a VIP room!

As she entered, Branch Manager Seo Sunwoo greeted her with a neat appearance and a smiling face.

“It’s nice to see you. Even though it’s only our second meeting, I feel a sense of familiarity. Perhaps it’s because I often watch your broadcasts.”

“Ahaha… Thank you for enjoying them.”

As Parang sat down, she quickly scanned the table.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

No pen, no paper!

‘Yes!!’

She barely managed to hide her delight.

Soon after, a parade of visually appetizing, luxurious dishes began to arrive, and Parang’s eyes lit up like a starry sky as she gazed at the food.

“Let’s eat first. I don’t like discussing business during meals either.”

“Ah, thank you for the meal.”

Wow, it’s like meat from a manga, manga meat. Parang digs into the heaping pile of food, chomping and munching away heartily.

#

“That was delicious. This restaurant is really great.”

“I’m glad it suited your taste.”

Seo Sunwoo spoke softly, looking at the dishes that had vanished without a trace.

“Well then, now for the main topic… if I may.”

Parang gulped nervously once more.

It feels like Seo Sunwoo might pull out paper and a pen from his pocket at any moment.

For now, Parang took out the documents she had brought from her waterproof bag.

It’s a file containing detailed information on several monster species, including their ecology, characteristics, strengths, sizes, and so on. The level of detail is almost stalker-like.

It’s data she received after asking Vertea for help.

These are the monster that will appear in the ‘Underwater Hunter Rank Test’ that she had discussed with Seo Sunwoo earlier.

As is common in hunter stories, they will be implemented as ‘physically interactive holograms’ that will appear in the test arena to fight with hunters.

This is the reason Parang came to Seoul today.

After Seo Sunwoo received and put away the documents, he took out something else and handed it to Parang.

Paper and pen… no, it’s a small metal box.

“What’s this?”

“Open it alone in a safe situation. After taking out the contents, throw the box into the sea.”

‘Huh….’

Once again sensing that something headache-inducing was about to happen, Parang simply put away the metal box for now.

Then they talked a bit about work, and ‘work’.

“Wait a minute. Is it okay to talk like this? Aren’t we at risk of being wiretapped or something?”

“It’s fine. I’ve already taken care of that part.”

“Ah, I see….”

She returned home without any issues.