– Wow, damn!
– The tension is insane!
Across the ages and cultures, humans have always found a significant portion of their entertainment in sparring.
From gladiators to lions, Messi and Ronaldo, fantasy and martial arts, T. rex and Spinosaurus—even a couple of those buff beasts fighting it out is a validated fun time and content.
And the sight of dozens of meter-long monster fish going at it like they’re possessed was enough to slather viewers’ brains in dopamine.
Watching a 40-meter shark gnawing on a 50-meter eel was incredibly entertaining beyond imagination.
Their duel was neck-and-neck, maintaining a precarious balance akin to walking on thin ice. Parang had slyly picked two contenders of similar strength, making it all possible.
Vertea was engrossed in commentary beside them.
“That shark-like creature is a Hinus. It’s a medium-sized species that has mutated from a bull shark.”
The original species, bull sharks, are rarely fully viviparous among fish, meaning they give birth like mammals—growing their young inside and cutting the umbilical cord.
Though it’s shifted to ovoviviparous due to the influence of the Gate.
This was also why Vertea was able to find the egg.
Creatures affected by the Gate exhibit a unique trait of all becoming ovoviviparous.
Another trait? Incredibly aggressive behavior. Fast and ferocious.
Despite being a relatively “small” 40 meters, it’s still classified as a predator.
Next up, the snake eel.
“This is a Muros, the eel you’re familiar with. They can typically grow to about 40 meters, but this one’s a bit larger.”
Vertea continued her calm explanation.
“They have excellent elasticity, allowing their bodies to stretch like rubber. They can comfortably extend to twice their original length.”
Parang helped with the explanation next to Vertea.
“The thinner their skin becomes as they stretch, the significantly lesser their durability. The max-stretched skin of a Muros can be torn by hand.”
Well, according to Parang’s hand size.
“How do I know that? Obviously, I’ve tried it myself. The sensation of it tearing apart is pretty satisfying, like peeling a tangerine.”
– Parang, what the heck does that even mean…
– But if it feels like peeling a tangerine, that’s good, right?
– Seriously, that’s some weird stuff…
Meanwhile, the two creatures were still fiercely exchanging blows.
Hinus would charge aggressively, while Muros would slip past.
Eels are among the smarter fish species. They’re so smart that humans can train them. A well-trained eel even recognizes its master.
Having transformed into a monster fish amplified this trait, allowing it to dodge all of the brutal charges from Hinus.
Though they were slightly slower than Hinus, making evasion a hair-raising limit, the agility of Muros twisting its body to avoid each wild charge from Hinus was exceptionally remarkable.
You’d wonder if that’s even a fish at all.
Hunters watching the broadcast found themselves imagining themselves in Muros’s place, pondering if they could evade a shark rushing at them underwater.
And swiftly came their conclusion.
If they ever faced that shark, they’d be done for without a chance to run.
“Hinus is one of the more common monster fish. It’s slightly rarer than Bellua and has a broad habitat, frequently appearing at the entrance of the monster fish layer, around 700 meters deep. Recently, it was even discovered at a record-breaking 9 kilometers deep.”
Parang added some context to Vertea’s explanation.
“Sometimes they even come up higher; on nights when the monster fish layer rises, they can occasionally be seen at depths of 300 meters.”
The viewers were already aware of the fact that the monster fish layer rises at night.
This was because Parang had mentioned it during the process of swimming to Hong Kong.
Thanks to this, no one in South Korea dives at night anymore.
Diving at night was already exponentially dangerous even without the monster fish, and with the layer rising? No thank you; that’d completely kill the diving mood.
Unlike daytime dives where the chances of running into monster fish are slim, nighttime diving significantly raises those chances, so Parang has been warning about the dangers of nighttime diving whenever the opportunity arises.
“Honestly, whether day or night, the best option is not to dive at all…”
■■■■■■――!!!
Parang’s words were abruptly cut off by the cry of a monster fish.
It must’ve really deserved the Monster Fish of the Month award for shutting down Parang mid-sentence.
– Wow,
– That definitely made the cut!
Glancing at the battle, Parang noticed that Hinus was now entangled with Muros.
From tail to head, spiraled tightly.
Due to the shark’s body structure, there was no escape from being entangled like that.
“See over there? If you look closely, you can spot the lighter-colored part that has grown. That’s the membrane that was hidden under the skin revealing itself.”
Just as she said, Muros had elongated its body to coil around Hinus. The constricting force was so strong that Hinus’s body was about to explode.
■■■■■■■■■――!!!
Despite its apparent struggle, Muros merely constricted tighter and tighter.
– Isn’t the shark just trash?
Now Muros had sunk its teeth into Hinus’s gill area. At this point, it seemed impossible for Hinus to mount a comeback.
■■■■-!!
Then, just as all the viewers were praying for Hinus’s soul, something unexpected happened.
Hwoooosh-!
Thud-!!
Hinus slammed its body against the wall of the train.
Normally, its body would’ve been squished, but thanks to Muros cushioned it, Hinus took no impact whatsoever.
Only Muros ended up squashed, bloodily separating from Hinus.
– Wow, what the hell…
– A fish head can make that call?
– This is stupidly hilarious.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Hinus rushed at Muros and succeeded in biting it.
The surroundings quickly turned crimson with blood.
“When blood spills during a fight with a Hinus, it means death,” Vertea noted quietly.
“Shark-type monsters have a somewhat… unique poison on their teeth.”
The perplexed viewers quickly realized what that meant.
Hinus extracted the blood-stained teeth it had sunk into Muros.
Blood was dripping heavily from the teeth, like a long strand of crimson trailing behind.
The issue was that it didn’t stop.
“Hinus’s teeth secrete a special chemical. When it mixes with blood, it behaves like a polymer substance.”
Parang simplified the terminology.
“So basically, it turns the blood into a state similar to egg whites.”
If you’ve ever cracked an egg and separated the yolk from the white, you’d know what that feels like.
The point is: the blood doesn’t stop flowing.
Not just doesn’t stop and trickle— it keeps gushing out of the body.
The area was already hazy with the blood Muros had bled.
Blinded by the mist of blood, the scar-ridden Hinus dove into it.
– Wow,
– Hinus Wins!!
It emerged, dragging along the completely desiccated corpse of Muros.
“Hinus takes the victory.”
Parang stated blandly, then swam over to Hinus and with a swift motion—
Swoosh.
Parang gently swung the harpoon.
■■■■■■■―!!
Hinus was sliced in half and died instantly.
The chat froze for a moment before it ignited.
– What the hell did I just see?
– One-shot??? Seriously???
“If anyone can replicate that, please contact me. If not, stay away from diving moving forward.”
– = No diving.
– It takes talent to be that consistent…
Then the collaboration broadcast with Vertea continued smoothly in good spirits.
Almost every monster fish within the 3-car and 2-car area had fought, except for the gate-born ones that do not lay eggs.
– How does she manage to find eggs in under 30 seconds every time?
“That’s all thanks to years of experience and accumulated knowledge through consistent study…”
“Skills.”
“… and the skills gained from that. Yes, that’s correct.”
Parang replied a bit curtly.
– Is the host upset?
– It definitely sounded upset.
“Nope.”
Truthfully, they were somewhat right.
Just as Vertea had said, aside from having a talent for cooking fish alive, she was also adept at finding something underwater.
Whenever she stumbled upon a new monster fish, she’d stick to it all day, investigating what it feeds on, where it builds its den, what its eggs look like, what its weaknesses are, how many hearts it has, and so forth, making it inevitable for her to develop related skills.
Thus, the long-awaited Bambaspis mirror battle concluded, bringing a day of monster fish battles to a close.
Parang was preparing to wrap up the broadcast.
“Thank you for watching today’s show, and once again, don’t dive— I believe you won’t.”
“It was fun today. I’ll be starting my broadcast soon as well.”
– Are we getting another monster fish battle?
– Are you showing off the European monster fish???
“Having monster fish battle each other? Well… I might do that occasionally.”
“By the way, we won’t be doing that in our stream. I don’t actually have the ability to search for eggs in the first place.”
Parang intended to make monster fish battles an exclusive content of Vertea’s broadcast. This way, there’d be differentiation, and thus an increased viewership!
The anti-diving effect? Judging by the viewers’ reactions today, there seemed to be some effect.
If Parang showcased the horrifying aspects of monster fish, Vertea would present the strong side of them.
Plus, due to the time difference, both broadcasts were completely separated.
“Well, anyway. That’s the deal. Please check out Vertea’s stream too, and I can’t stress enough—don’t dive, alright?”
– Yup.
“See you tomorrow.”
With that, Parang’s broadcast came to an end.
Not long after the broadcast concluded, the entire recording and highlight edited footage began to be suspiciously recommended to Europeans in French, English, Spanish, and German.
And then…
“Well then—”
“We need to get to work.”
After the broadcast, Parang and Vertea didn’t leave the East Sea Hive.
They stood at the junction between the 2-car and 1-car.
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep!
A detector was blaring fiercely from Parang’s chest.
