NOVEL NEXT Chapter 81
“Alright! Then let’s wrap up today’s broadcast here. It’s currently 11 PM in Korea… Have a good night. This has been Yu Parang.”
– Obaengal
– Bbye-bbye
– Obaengal
With her familiar closing remarks, Parang concluded her stream.
Even she could feel that her broadcasting skills were becoming more polished these days.
Regardless of the subject, the sensation of moving forward feels quite pleasant.
A faint smile spread across her face as she looked at the black screen that had turned off.
Tap-tap.
Diego, who had been quietly standing behind her, tapped her shoulder.
Parang quietly turned around and gave him a thumbs-up.
“I’ll handle the searching on my own. You must be really tired, so go back.”
Parang lightly tapped Diego on the shoulder. Normally, she’d have asked him to help retrieve the Slayers’ corpses, but she could imagine Diego’s body bearing an unimaginable burden right now.
It was the penalty for using skills in a giant state.
Sending him home to rest was the right thing to do. He would probably be sore all over for the next four days.
‘I should send him some health food later.’
With Diego now gone, Parang stretched out in the water and began to explore, glancing around.
‘The Bermuda Hive is on the smaller side. I should be able to find it quickly.’
After a little while passed, more time went by.
It wasn’t long before…
“Ugh…”
Parang crossed her arms and let out a cute sound of frustration.
‘No matter how much I search, I can’t find it…’
It had been four hours since she began searching.
The Bermuda Hive was generally small, plus it seemed like almost half of the volume was taken up by the gate, so at this point, she should have been done checking the Hive.
Yet, she hadn’t seen so much as a corpse or even a shadow of one.
‘Should I conclude that it’s not here…?’
Given that Parang had previously had good success rates in tracking corpses, she had expected to find this one too, but it seemed the gods weren’t smiling down on her this time.
‘Ah, right.’
The gods are dead.
Killed by Hunter Han Siwoo, not Nietzsche.
The new god, Hunter Han Siwoo, was dragged into the sea and met his end.
If that eyeball in the ocean was indeed a god…
‘Ugh.’
Parang thought that perhaps there was no need for that god to smile at her.
Well, in any case, it occurred to her there was really no god to smile at her.
‘At this point, it really seems like there’s nothing.’
After even checking inside the muzzles of the ceremonial weapons stacked next to the gate, Parang concluded.
If she had searched to this extent and found nothing, it meant nothing was there.
Just as Parang was about to give in and leave…
‘Huh?’
Something familiar yet strange caught Parang’s eye.
A bizarre shape that looked ambiguous enough to not be sure if it was a fish. It seemed somewhat like the unsettling epitome of an unfinished creation.
It was a peculiar T-shaped handle monstrosity.
Capulus.
‘Why is that here…’
Well, it’s not surprising for a creature to be beneath the sea.
Parang slowly approached Capulus.
Usually, she didn’t have the time to carefully observe because she was always in a rush, exhausted, or feeling bothered.
But today felt different.
She felt like the strange rejection that had been in her heart had washed away.
So, Parang thought, “Aha! Today is the day to unveil your true identity! I’ll shake out all your family ties, friendships, mentorships, and financial connections!” and moved closer to Capulus.
Then…
Swish—
Capulus rolled its eye once to look at Parang, and then…
Whoosh—
It turned around and moved away at a pace that wasn’t too fast but also not too slow, in an oddly ambiguous manner.
‘Huh??’
A massive question mark popped up over Parang’s head at the sight.
What kind of movement was that? It wasn’t fleeing nor attacking.
Was it trying to pretend it didn’t see her? But no, she had definitely locked eyes with it.
After some contemplation, Parang made the decision…
‘Should I follow it?’
It seemed like there was nothing to lose by following.
If she played her cards right, she could find its habitat—or rather, since it wasn’t a living creature, perhaps its manufacturing site or, perhaps, its production origin would be more fitting to say.
Since it had been revealed that Capulus wasn’t a creature, the most likely hypothesis put forth by Vertea was that it was a ‘byproduct of a higher life form.’
So, if Parang followed Capulus, she might encounter that higher life form.
Even if there was a slim chance that she might be getting lured in, she had confidence that she could take them all on by herself and slip away easily.
Thus, the awkward accompanying swim between Parang and Capulus began.
About five minutes later.
‘What, what’s this…?’
Parang was able to discover the corpse of the ninth Slayer, Charlotte Eira.
Her corpse was lying in a narrow space between a small hole in the ground and a barricade.
The gap was so small that Capulus couldn’t fit through, making it understandable that Parang hadn’t discovered it.
Parang alternately stared at the corpse, then back to Capulus, her face in shock.
‘Wait, what’s going on here…?’
Regardless, Capulus stared at her in front of the corpse, then…
Whoosh—
It turned to leave, leisurely disappearing somewhere.
“Hey, why?”
In that moment, Parang finally understood why the main characters in web novels often babble to themselves.
When faced with an absurd situation, humans tend to voice their thoughts unintentionally.
Ignoring the corpse, Parang began to mull over what had just transpired.
Her mind was flooded with a myriad of possibilities, but they all vanished, leaving behind hundreds of questions that meant nothing. None formed a coherent theory.
Except for one.
‘Did it… help me?’
“Capulus? Helped me?”
…Why?
On the surface, it looked like a perfect scenario, but still, why?
Even before that, the question remained: how?
How could a creature without any known intelligence ascertain that Parang was searching for the Slayers’ corpses, then lead her to that corpse?
If such an intelligent creature existed…
‘Ugh, my head hurts.’
That would complicate matters significantly.
The theory that humans created and manipulated it made no sense.
Only Silo knew that Parang was searching for the Slayers’ corpses, and she didn’t imagine Silo could create something like this.
‘What if it’s the government?’
Since Sunwoo tightly held onto the information, Parang had no clue about the world government, unlike the transparent association.
Realizing that she hadn’t been paying attention to the world government’s activities lately was a revelation.
In fact, it was the world government that had truly threatened her.
Still, it was not particularly surprising since there hadn’t been any news from them.
They used to send assassins and the like, but now, there were none.
To an outsider, they appeared utterly clueless about the deep sea or the monsters.
Even so, the notion that the world government created Capulus to guide Parang to a corpse…
‘That’s just too far-fetched for any reasonable conclusion.’
That felt like a stretch.
In conclusion, she was clueless!
‘The mysteries just keep piling up…’
Parang stared at the corpse ahead with a bored expression.
‘This is kind of surprising.’
Charlotte’s corpse was remarkably well-preserved.
There were no visible wounds, not even her clothes were in tatters.
If this were anywhere but the deep ocean, one would easily mistake her for someone just asleep.
‘What if she’s alive…?’
As past memories surfaced, Parang approached cautiously, but…
Tap-tap. Just a corpse.
Parang briefly contemplated if this was fate or misfortune but concluded that, after all, it was better for the living to be dead than the other way around, deeming it unfortunate.
As she inspected the corpse, she caught a glimpse of Han Siwoo’s humanity, who truly must have had a lucky hand when it came to ladies.
Even through those sinister glasses that marred the beauty of all existence, her beauty still shone through.
A tall figure with gracefully long arms, and those delicate fingers were clenched into a fist…
‘Huh, a fist?’
Curiously, when Parang gently opened the fist, she discovered a ring inside.
A pretty ring, with golden threads intertwined beautifully within a transparent band.
Even a passing monster could recognize this as a situation where an artifact had been found.
As Parang rummaged through her mental library, trying to recall what this could be, she thought,
‘Ah.’
She knew the name of the artifact but not its function.
To clarify: she knew the artifact’s name, but the details of its abilities were hazy.
Hunter Han Siwoo created this ‘ring’ only once throughout the entire original story.
That was the day before his ascension.
Parang wasn’t aware of every artifact that appeared in that lengthy novel.
However, she did remember one phrase Han Siwoo often expressed:
“One day, when we overcome all of these trials and reach the conclusion, let’s create the ring then.”
And as far as Parang knew, Hunter Han Siwoo fulfilled that promise, creating rings the day before his ascension and giving them to all the women.
The name he gave the ring was ‘Happy Ending.’
Considering the events that followed, it’s rather tragic.
‘Come to think of it, I felt like the Slayers had a ring on their fingers, too…’
Not precisely clear. A transparent ring with golden threads flowing through it was likely not something observable amidst a fierce battle.
This time, she swore to examine it closely.
The problem was that the ring’s function had never been described even once throughout the narrative.
Parang was a case of reincarnation right after finishing the ending, so she hadn’t seen the readers’ community speculations.
That was truly unfortunate.
Having briefly lost herself in thought, Parang rubbed her eyes.
After all, she was a reader of the novel too.
Recalling that poignant ending brought a stab to her heart.
‘Right. To ensure all that happened wasn’t in vain…’
She needed to take action.
She gathered Charlotte’s corpse and headed back to the surface.