“Ugh… Haaah…”
Yu Parang, rise and shine.
The last day of the East Sea exploration has dawned.
The exploration’s purpose has already been accomplished; she plans to quickly end the broadcast after catching the Brachium.
“Hmm.”
Parang briefly contemplated the characteristics of the Brachium.
“Can I catch it without the Kraken?”
To be honest, she wasn’t sure.
The strategy for hunting the Brachium, a monster fish, hasn’t been standardized.
More precisely, there’s a severe lack of research on the Brachium itself.
All that’s known is that its many arms are all part of a single entity.
Even that conclusion is based on numerous arms disappearing at once during attacks and one magic stone appearing.
Aside from that, they know it’s strong, white, came from a gate, and is indiscriminate in its feeding habits.
Also, it probably plays the role of an apex predator in the monster ecosystem.
Brachium definitely came out of the gate, but there have been discoveries of dead earth fish nearby.
The prevailing theory is that, due to its lack of vision and intelligence, it killed everything that came close.
Such cases happen on land, primarily with plant-type monsters.
Because a pile of corpses of species once considered apex predators was found among those monster fish remains, it leads to the conclusion that it is indeed an apex predator.
To summarize, there’s practically no information available about the Brachium. It’s as if it doesn’t exist.
If you ask why there is such a lack of research material, it’s because there hasn’t been any opportunity to study it.
It must be that rare of a species.
The initial discovery of the Brachium happened quite a while ago.
Alice Melville first witnessed it in a hive located in the Drake Strait.
The second sighting was by Diego Lopez Martin in a hive in the Caribbean.
The third was noted by Vertea Pavron in a hive in the North Sea.
And now, it has been spotted in the East Sea Hive for the fourth time.
At the time of the first discovery, the organization known as Oceanos didn’t even exist, so research couldn’t be established. At the second sighting, Diego, uninterested in monster research, just let it slide, and the research fizzled out.
By the third sighting, well…
“Right after the ‘Alice incident,’ Oceanos, in a frenzy, was tearing apart every visible monster in the world’s oceans, so there wasn’t really a chance for research to take place.”
Even Vertea, upon seeing the monster for the first time, immediately killed it, not caring at all.
Thus, the situation is rather awkward for Parang. After all, this is her first time seeing the Brachium with her own eyes.
She recalled the hunting stories shared by her Oceanos colleagues about the Brachium.
Alice.
“I forgot. They probably caught it somehow. It wasn’t hard.”
Diego.
“I stepped on it.”
Vertea.
“I boiled it in its space.”
“Ha….”
None of this was helpful.
“Oh! I don’t know. It’ll work out somehow.”
It’s about time to turn on the broadcast. She quickly left her house and jumped into the water.
#
[ “I’m here to finish this game.” ]
[ Author: It’s Not My Fault, It’s the Team’s Blame ]
(Parang’s broadcast screen capture. The title simply says ‘Day 3 of East Sea Exploration.’)
Today, trust the great King once more.
You watching?
– Okay, let’s go~ okay, let’s go~ okay, let’s go~
– Aren’t we only watching one segment today? It seems like a short stream.
ㄴ This person doesn’t understand boss battles lol.
ㄴ Agreed, it’s a boss battle lol. What do you think this is? Just going through introductions and calling it a day.
– If you’re going to watch the entire broadcast today, give it a thumbs up.
ㄴ Thumbs up lol.
ㄴ I’m Shin Yuna and I hit the thumbs up.
ㄴ I’m not Shin Yuna, but I hit the thumbs up anyway.
#
Shifting the perspective back to Yu Parang.
♬♪♩♬~
She was lying still underwater.
It was her favorite time of day. She decided to play some classical music to try it out, and it definitely set a nice mood.
“I’ll just stay like this for 10 more minutes.”
– ‘If you steal my food, I’ll be sad’ donated 1000 won!-
[ Can I ask what your personal skill is? ]
“Um….”
Parang thought for a moment.
“No, I’ve never shown it while streaming, and I won’t show it in the future either.”
– What on earth could it be?
“Don’t be curious.”
The viewers’ doubts merely sank into obscurity.
Chatting, laughing, communicating.
After some time, they arrived at the East Sea Hive.
“We’ve arrived.”
– Finally.
– At last.
– Exciting.
Parang stood at the entrance of the first car.
The viewers could see the general interior of the first car through the screen.
– Isn’t this a train car??
– I thought it would be the engineer’s room.
– This caught me off guard, what kind of cave is this?
“Hives have specific places that, unlike regular objects, have interiors like caves. The reason is unknown.”
Parang continued.
“Today, I’ll explain the monsters inside beforehand before we enter.”
Parang shared information about the Brachium with the viewers. Of course, she omitted the Oceanos part.
– Wow, that’s creepy as hell.
– Why does something like that exist?
– But why explain it beforehand today?
“It could be dangerous to just leisurely explain it.”
– Why’s that?
“I’ve mentioned it before; since it’s a monster that hasn’t been studied much, unexpected situations may arise.”
– It sounds dangerous, but isn’t the host good enough to handle it? Didn’t they say a lone hive assault could be done?
“That’s only when I’ve activated my personal skill. Without it, I’m not sure what could happen either.”
– Well, then, just activate it.
– This is clearly inviting curiosity, right?
“What’s impossible is impossible.”
Like she said, impossible is impossible.
“Of course, if any unexpected situation occurs, the broadcast will end immediately. Sometimes, there are monsters that attack the mind even from beyond the screen.”
She has already given Silo the authority to forcibly stop the broadcast.
In fact, even if Parang didn’t grant such authority, Silo could stop the broadcast anytime.
For instance, by blocking Parang’s streaming account or shutting down the server.
Both Parang and Silo are aware of this. Thus, they’ve entered into a mutually beneficial agreement.
Parang benefits by being able to leverage Silo, and Silo enjoys the reduction in hassle.
Parang doesn’t know if the Brachium inflicts that level of mental attack.
As numerous questions flood into the chat, Parang ignored it and stepped into the train car.
Once inside, she fixed the broadcast screen to a first-person view. Gotta set the mood, after all.
Brrrrr—
As she entered, it was a completely different scene than what she saw from outside.
While it looked like a gloomy cave from the outside, stepping inside it felt utterly suffocating.
– What a mood…
The color around her was almost resembling navy blue, nearly indigo. Only the black silhouettes of rocks and boulders could barely be recognized.
And in the distance, a space covered with numerous arms.
Parang headed toward that place without hesitation.
Slowly, maintaining a good distance.
Inside that dark underwater cave were countless human arms.
The eeriness and grotesqueness of it brought feelings of horror, dissonance, and unease.
The many white arms were undulating, stiff, and even twisting in a bizarre manner.
Since it was a monster that came from the gate, Parang would be viewed as prime prey to the Brachium.
The moment even a hint of her presence was sensed, it would spring into action.
Yet Parang approached the Brachium.
Slowly, slowly.
Unfortunately, Parang had no skills to mask her presence.
So she was prepared to be stabbed if discovered.
Consequently, her movements were cautious and quiet.
She approached and meticulously examined the Brachium.
At first glance, it appeared to match the descriptions handed down from others, but there was one notable difference.
“A sphere.”
In the midst of the numerous arms, there were arms cradling a sphere.
Parang had no idea what that was; she didn’t know if it was part of the Brachium.
This monster could perhaps be a separate species closely resembling the Brachium.
Thud—
Finally, Parang reached the arm that was positioned at the outermost edge of the Brachium’s space.
An arm that was bent at a right angle, frozen in place without a single movement. It was about 10 meters long.
The shape elongated as if it had broken through the earth.
She thought the arm might be a bit soft, but upon touching it, she found it surprisingly solid.
The first thing Parang did was,
Thunk— Thud.
Clearing away the surrounding rocks.
Logically, beneath those stones, there could either be the Brachium’s core or something crucial.
This was her aim.
Even if it was an indestructible object, moving something already detached was still possible.
Parang cleared away the rocks, each about her size.
While her strength was indeed considerable, the remarkable lightness of these stones also contributed.
One by one, as she removed the rocks, the form of the Brachium became visible.
However, Parang did not observe it.
“■■ ■.”
A sound echoed from behind, indiscernible whether it was speech, a cry, waves crashing, rocks colliding, or the sound of arms being swung.
When Parang turned around, she found herself in the very center of the Brachium’s space.
The sphere was right in front of her face.
Suddenly, her body was ensnared by numerous arms.
Fingers growing from large arms extended and entwined around her entire form.
“Oh no…!”
This wasn’t a hallucination. There was no way that could affect Parang.
The Brachium had moved. Somehow, she didn’t know how.
Without a sound or movement. It approached her directly, accurately.
In fact, she couldn’t even feel its touch on her body.
“Oh no…!”
This was disastrous.
Then, the Brachium opened its eyes.
Eyes sprouted from the massive white sphere.
Blue. Deep cosmic blue. The color of home.
[ The skill, ‘Waterproof Sanity,’ is now in effect. ]
In an instant, Parang assessed the situation and sprang into action.
[ The skill, ‘Aqua Pulse,’ is activated. ]
In that moment, the energy burst from Parang’s body, causing the nearby arms to cease their movement.
They were paralyzed.
She hurled a harpoon and pierced the Brachium’s eye.
“■■ ■….”
Schhhhhh—
That spot must have been a vital point. The Brachium crumbled away rapidly and transformed into magic stones.
It was an incredibly anticlimactic demise.
Parang hurriedly turned on her phone to check the broadcast status.
[ This broadcast has been terminated. ]
It seemed Silo had forcibly ended it.
Please, let this just end as a matter of her eccentricity.
Parang prayed desperately that nothing had happened to the people beyond the monitor.
But right before the stream concluded, her eyes froze at the last chats left by the viewers.
– Open your eyes.
– Open your eyes.
– Open your eyes.
– Open your eyes.
– Open your eyes.
– Open your eyes.
“Oh no.”
This is bad.
Parang immediately started swimming up.
