Shua—!
Parang burst out of the garden at insane speed, swimming like a mad creature.
Thanks to that, the viewers got a glimpse of the outside of the “garden,” which was quite fascinating.
At first, they thought they were looking at a rocky pit, thinking, “Oh, it’s just a hole in a mountain or cliff.” But then it turned out to be… something else.
Just a flat floor with a solitary protrusion.
It was like a holey rock towering over the flat ground, as if a building had sprung up in the plains.
There was nothing around—no mountains or cliffs, just a solitary patch of flat ground.
The appearance was extremely bizarre.
– What’s with that thing?
– Damn, I never imagined it would look like that!
“Oh, sometimes there are these odd segments. It’s either just above or just below the monster layer. In those depths, you can sometimes find this awkward terrain.”
– Doesn’t seem like a topic to speak so casually about.
– So, how deep is it here?
“Right now, we’re at a depth of 600m. Oh, I forgot to bring up the depth interface. Just a moment.”
Parang had forgotten to switch from the setting for apology broadcasts to the regular setting.
She pulled out her phone and fiddled with the app, and soon the broadcast screen displayed the depth and temperature interface.
“Well then, I’ll dive down now. For those of you who were joking around earlier, I’ve remembered your nicknames, so don’t leave and type ‘the ocean is dangerous’ every three minutes. Anyone who doesn’t will be hunted down and banned.”
– No way!
– The ocean is dangerous!
– Parang, just let me live!
– The ocean is dangerous!
Being banned during Parang’s broadcast was scarier for the viewers than encountering a monster fish.
Parang continued to swim with a satisfied smile.
Before long, the once-empty flat expanse ended and a cliff appeared, twisting at a 90-degree angle.
Below was the deep blue, something they were always familiar with.
Without a hint of hesitation, Parang swam swiftly downwards.
– Uh, where is she going?
– Please at least tell us where you’re headed!
– Aaaah!
– The ocean is dangerous!
– Parang, let’s just talk about this!
– The ocean is dangerous!
– ‘ㅇㅇ’ has donated 1000 won! –
[Please just give me one more chance……!!]
“It’s the end. Useless things.”
Seriously, who dared to threaten Parang, who was just minding her own business?
Even the mild-mannered Parang was quite angry about this.
Just below, there was the perfect object waiting.
Last time she checked, a bunch of Topodas were living there.
Because she never decided to hunt them, and since Topodas are apex predators, there’s a high chance they’d still be there.
“Please be there…… please……!!”
A Topoda would be just the thing to strike back at those annoying viewers.
– The ocean is dangerous!
And finally. Yu Parang arrived!
Current depth: 2.1km.
A gigantic floating beer can appeared right in front of her.
With a red background embossed with white accents and black italicized letters, it was an eye-catching beer can.
The red tab at the opening was its trademark.
It looked remarkably similar to a beer can found on Earth, making Oceanos quite shocked when it discovered it for the first time.
Usually, if something resembling human technology was discovered in the deep sea, there were no brands or labels.
Parang had seen an example of this before when she encountered an object that looked like a toothpaste tube.
No branding or pattern, just plain solid color.
The viewers were amazed to recognize the beer can from afar.
– Isn’t that what I think it is?
– I have one just like it on my desk!
– I drank that just yesterday—what’s up???
– The ocean is dangerous!
– Didn’t someone leave it behind or something?
– Seriously, right? Haha!
– The ocean is dangerous!
And Parang kept diving into this can to kill the monsters inside.
That’s the only beer she could never drink in real life.
Well, either way, Parang entered the beer can object.
The beer can object was about 1.5 times the size of a toothpaste tube object.
So, one or two medium-sized monster fish like Galecus could fit in comfortably.
Inside, it looked like your average object.
A nauseating dark space covered in green slime.
Turning on her flashlight, Parang stood by the entrance of the beer can, surveying her surroundings.
Then something caught her eye.
– What the hell is that?
– Is that a bone??
– Looks like a bone indeed!
– The ocean is dangerous!
“That’s correct. This is a bone from a monster fish. It seems it tried to settle here and got eaten.”
From the shape and size, it looked like a serpent-type monster, somewhere between small and medium.
Parang could only piece together the clues from the half-broken skeleton, but didn’t find any significant movements after examining the object closely.
Conclusion: The Topodas were still around.
“Lucky me.”
What if there had been a 5% chance that Topodas weren’t here?
…Well, in that case, it would mean there were other monster fish that had taken residence here after wiping out the local Topodas, but that could be dealt with during the broadcast.
Since she confirmed the presence of Topodas, Parang began her performance nonchalantly.
“Aww, unfortunately, it looks like no monster fish has settled here yet. I think it’s because I recently hunted some. Too bad.”
– What? There’s something here!
– Yeah, there is!
– What is it??
– The ocean is dangerous!
– I can see that smile all the way to your ears!
Did it show that much? She should be able to handle her excitement.
Having come this far, Parang decided to be unapologetically brazen. She walked quietly forward.
Desperately trying to suppress her bursting laugh.
“There really are no monster fish here. Just look, there’s none here, none there, nowhere in sight!”
– Is this for real?
– You think it’s real? Just look at the broadcast anchor’s expression!
– The ocean is dangerous!
Parang shamelessly pretended not to notice, and the effect was tremendous.
To the viewers, it genuinely looked like no monster fish was around and it was an empty space, but Parang’s grin made it hard to believe that was true.
Confusion! Confusion! More confusion!
“Since we’re here anyway, let’s look around a bit…”
WHAAACK!!!!!!
Just as Parang was about to continue her sentence, a wall covered in green slime suddenly sprang to life and lunged at her with incredible speed.
WHOOSH-!!
Parang expertly stabbed it with a harpoon, ending its life.
– Ugh, what the hell was that??
– Aaaah!
– Do I really have to watch “Hug Me Here” even from here?
– The ocean is dangerous!
The chat exploded with shocked reactions to the sudden appearance of the monster.
It had seemingly popped out of nowhere, so it was natural for them to react that way.
Barely holding back her laughter, Parang finally started explaining about the octopus-like creature, the Topoda.
“Topodas are mutated monster fish that were originally octopuses. They are masters of disguise, and now mutated, they blend into their environment almost perfectly to hunt prey.”
The octopus’s skills don’t stop at being delicious; there are three more noteworthy abilities.
First is the ink. Shooting ink in dire situations to escape is absolutely fundamental to an octopus’s identity.
Second is intelligence. Just a little search on YouTube shows octopuses escape mazes and open jars; they definitely have superior intelligence.
And third is their mimicry ability; they can change the color of their bodies at will to blend perfectly into their surroundings, another hallmark of the octopus. Why do you think octopus characters are always depicted as masters of stealth in movies?
“And when an octopus mutates into a Topoda, all three of these traits become significantly enhanced.”
Deadlier ink, higher intelligence, and greatly improved mimicry.
Armed with these three abilities, Topodas became apex predators in the monster fish ecosystem, growing only twice the size of their original octopus forms.
Their specialty, of course, is ambush while remaining hidden.
“And in this object, there are loads of Topodas. I’d estimate around fifty to sixty of them?”
– Hell no, do they really have fifty of those things?!
– I was going to eat octopus today!!!
– I was just eating some! Haha…
– The ocean is dangerous (and that’s a real sentiment).
“That means…”
Parang placed one hand on her waist and raised a finger toward the ceiling.
WHAAACK!!!
Thud!
KIEEEE—!
A Topoda was grasped in Parang’s hand, trying to escape while spraying ink, but—
WHOOSH!
Parang squeezed her fist tightly and crushed the Topoda.
“Which means they’re going to keep ambushing me. Were you surprised?”
– Yes;;;
– Very surprised indeed;;
“Glad to hear it. I’ll remember that.”
Just knowledge. Parang had no intention of stopping.
“I’m going to film the end of this object, the bottom of the beer can. During that time, the Topodas will keep trying to ambush me.”
– Oh please, the ocean is dangerous!
– Just let me see once, the ocean is dangerous!
“Ah, fortunately, once you find a Topoda, it’s easy to figure out its hiding spot. Which means you can predict where the ambush will come from, right?”
– Well, that’s true…
– I really don’t think I can find them though…
– The ocean is dangerous…
“Ah, that’s not something I should worry about! Lastly, a Topoda takes about 5 seconds of searching time before it attacks any target in its line of sight.”
In other words—
“So within those 5 seconds, do try your best to find them. Good luck!”
Viewpoint: Fixed first-person.
– Good luck? Seriously, the ocean is dangerous!
Parang confidently walked through the object.
And then, aah!
The viewers wailed.
What can they do? They brought this disaster upon themselves.
Suddenly, the chat filled with excited cheers from happy viewers.
Yu Parang, the apology broadcast.
A tremendous success.
