EP.1 Yu Parang (1)

 

 

 

‘I don’t want to work…’

 

B-rank hunter Yu Parang thought as she lay in the water.

 

Her hair, a deep blue reminiscent of the sea, swayed freely.

 

No matter where she looked—front, back, left, right, up, or down—there was nothing but water.

 

Beams of light descended from the surface, forming pillars that surrounded her closely.

 

In the endlessly stretched blue void, she was the only existence.

 

Bubbles rose from her mouth, adding sound to the silent space.

 

And then, silence again. A space with no sound or movement.

 

‘I don’t want to work…’

 

Parang continued to lie still, looking at the water’s surface.

 

Below her, where the light couldn’t reach, the water gradually turned a deep blue, then navy, indigo, and finally black.

 

From now on, she had to descend into that abyss.

 

‘I don’t want to work…’

 

After all, that was her job.

 

She could swim down and dive directly, but that was too bothersome.

 

She closed her eyes and lay still, waiting for her body to sink naturally.

 

To put it bluntly, she was slacking off.

 

Given the nature of her work environment, no one was watching her, and above all, she was self-employed.

 

It wasn’t a specific request; it was just something she did as a pastime, so it was natural for Parang to procrastinate as much as possible.

 

Moreover, Parang quite liked floating quietly in the cozy water. Wearing a diving suit that clung to her entire body and closing her eyes, she felt the faint undulations of the water envelop her.

 

It was a custom-made diving suit ordered from Silo Corporation.

 

Due to her physical characteristics, it felt more like a multifunctional bodysuit than a diving suit, but if you wear it while diving, it’s a diving suit. Parang decided not to delve too deeply into it.

 

Anyway, during these dives, Parang enjoyed contemplating or sleeping. It was her small hobby.

 

Bubbles rose again.

 

How much time had passed? She felt a vibration from the gauge attached to her left arm.

 

A low hum followed.

 

She opened her eyes and looked around, noticing that it was noticeably darker than before. Earlier, it felt somewhere between sky blue and blue, but now everything around her was a deep navy.

 

There was nothing to touch or see. No matter where she turned her head, all she could see was the void of navy blue. She could barely tell which way was up by the bubbles she exhaled.

 

June 11, 2024, 17:23

 

[Current Depth: 302m] ????

 

Next to the gauge that indicated the current depth and time, a flame-shaped icon lit up red, indicating that the heating function was activated.

 

She had sunk 250 meters just by lying still. At 300 meters, she had descended 50 meters past the thermocline, meaning she had overslept.

 

She should have woken up at the 250-meter mark.

 

Parang rubbed her eyes with her hands, yawning as if she were stretching. Thanks to the heating function, the area around her eyes felt warm where her hands had touched.

 

Stretching as if she had made up her mind, Parang suddenly began to swim downward quickly. She had procrastinated to the limit and, now bored, decided it was time to work.

 

Downward, and further downward.

 

June 11, 2024, 17:24

 

[Current Depth: 701m]????

 

In less than a minute, Parang had dived 400 meters. An ordinary person would have been crushed by the pressure in an instant, but of course, this was irrelevant to her.

 

 

 

She had just woken up feeling refreshed after sleeping for about four hours in the sea. Expecting her to adhere to common knowledge about water pressure was unreasonable.

 

Anyway, at a depth of 700 meters, according to the Hunter Association’s classification, this was the “Monster Fish Zone,” where the so-called deep-sea monsters began to appear.

 

This was Parang’s workplace.

 

– Click-click. –

 

Parang pressed a few buttons on the cartridge located on her right arm.

 

– Clack. –

 

With a sound, a chip about the size of a palm popped out.

 

– Crunch-crunch. –

 

The red chip was mercilessly crushed by the water pressure as soon as it emerged.

 

When Parang grabbed it and completely crumpled it in her hand,

 

■■■■■■-!

 

a heavy, dull sound, like a ship’s horn, began to echo through the dark deep sea.

 

“…”

 

Parang listened to the sound, her sharp eyes scanning the surroundings. The earlier drowsy expression was gone, replaced by a chillingly cold look that clearly marked her as a hunter.

 

■■■■■■■-!

 

After about five minutes, something caught Parang’s eye in the navy blue surroundings. The direction was downward. A faint but distinct bright blue light.

 

It flickered faintly but was clearly growing larger. In simple terms, something emitting a blue light was rushing toward Parang from the depths of the sea at a tremendous speed.

 

As Parang focused on it, she noticed two smaller blue lights flanking the initial large one.

 

――――!

 

As it approached, revealing that the large light was its mouth and the smaller ones were its eyes, Parang swam sideways at a speed twice as fast as when she dived.

 

Her movement was so swift that it seemed impossible to believe she was underwater, resembling an aerial hunter performing acrobatics in the sky.

 

Just after Parang swam out of the creature’s path,

 

――――!

 

something swept through the spot where she had been, as if a train had passed right in front of her.

 

Scanning with the device attached to her diving suit, she saw it was moving at 60 km/h. While not quite the speed of a subway train, which can reach up to 110 km/h, it was still significant.

 

And 60 km/h was quite slow by underwater standards.

 

And in that “underwater” realm, Parang was included.

 

– Swish. –

 

In an instant, Parang’s blue eyes flashed, and her figure disappeared.

 

In less than ten seconds, Parang caught up with the creature and began swimming alongside it at the same speed, her expression unchanged.

 

She had essentially caught up to a subway train by swimming.

 

As she swam, she examined the creature from its tail to its mouth, adjusting her speed like a predator sizing up its prey.

 

Its body was almost a perfect cylinder, with little variation in thickness from head to tail.

 

Its mouth was round and fixed in shape, with randomly protruding teeth and blue light seeping from within.

 

It had three pairs of whiskers, four eyes on each side of its head, and, crucially, it moved at 60 km/h without any fins.

 

Having observed all this, Parang broke into a broad smile.

 

‘Big catch!!’

 

A Bellua Maria, 40 meters long and 6 meters in diameter.

 

A truly exceptional catch.

 

Parang had already caught dozens of Belluas.

 

Not just Belluas; the monsters she had captured so far were as formidable, if not more so.

 

As soon as she confirmed that the monster in front of her was a Bellua, she immediately began her work.

 

First, she set up the explosives.

 

The Bellua’s body was shaped like a semi-circular carapace surrounding a soft body, with a series of (O)-shaped tissues running along its length.

 

Parang climbed onto the Bellua’s back, grabbed a protruding part, and secured herself.

 

When she opened her hand, a watermelon-sized air bubble appeared, filled with red gas.

 

She inserted it into the gap between the carapaces.

 

―――!!!!

 

Realizing something was wrong with its body, the Bellua thrashed wildly, changing directions up, down, left, and right to shake Parang off.

 

But it didn’t know that every Bellua Parang had encountered had done the same and failed.

 

– Swish, swish, swish, swish. –

 

Parang moved swiftly, inserting air bubbles into every joint of the carapace from head to tail.

 

Then, detonation. She took a stance as if to thrust a harpoon, and a long, spear-like shape of air formed around her hand.

 

She thrust it into the same spot as before,

 

– Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! –

 

A series of grand explosions ran from the tail to the head,

 

-…Boom!! –

 

Finally, when the bubble at the very front of the head exploded,

 

―――!!!

 

The light that had been seeping from its eyes and mouth went out, and the Bellua died.

 

– Shurururur. –

 

As with all unknown creatures that emerged from the gate, the Bellua turned into light, leaving behind only what was valuable.

 

Quickly pressing a button on her left calf, a net inflated like an airbag.

 

Moving even faster than when she had chased the Bellua, Parang swiftly collected the magic stones and carapaces.

 

A smile bloomed on her face like a flower, having caught a big one after a long time.

 

It took her less than 30 seconds to reach the surface. After all, it was the way home. The faster, the better.