The space was littered with various experimental tools. The landscape, packed with machines whose purposes were unknown, gave off a vibe reminiscent of a secret organization’s underground lab.
From suspiciously oversized machines three times the size of a person to tiny flasks that made you wonder what could even fit inside them.
The sight of advanced equipment filling the vast space was overwhelming, bordering on unsettling.
The fact that the entire area was submerged in water only added to the bizarre atmosphere.
And in the center of the underwater lab, Xiao and Parang stood facing each other within a deliberately empty circular space, surrounded by various experimental tools.
“Let’s begin.”
“Okay.”
Xiao picked up the particular skull and cast a skill.
Not ‘Dive,’ but a simple identity check.
“Hmm….”
Parang watched Xiao silently. Before her eyes appeared the status of the owner of the skull.
Xiao, moving her eyes as if reading something floating in the air, spoke up.
“Matilda Müller. An S-rank Hunter. From her name, she seems to be German, and her personal skill is ‘Berserk.’”
Xiao recited the brief information.
A personal skill is somewhat akin to the identity of a Hunter. Awakening it means being treated as an ‘Awakened One.’
Naturally, the strength varies immensely based on the rank of the personal skill. Once awakened, it can’t be changed.
Isn’t that unfair? Unfortunately, this world operates on the whims of a munchkin novel. It doesn’t care if someone other than the protagonist suffers from inequality.
Parang’s personal skill, ‘Daughter of the Kraken,’ is also an S-rank.
And the way Hunters fight is mostly determined by their personal skills.
Naturally, Hunters are remembered by their fighting styles, so the personal skill itself can refer to that Hunter.
Meaning, that sometimes Xiao is referred to not as Xiao but as the ‘Ghost Captain.’
And Berserk—Matilda Müller was someone Parang already knew.
She was a character from the original story.
Matilda Müller appeared as a villain. With abilities that were ordinary at best and not nearly heroine-level, she had a pretty enough appearance to challenge Hunter Han Siwoo, saying, “For a rank A…!” and was then defeated before exiting the stage as a minor character.
That incident led to the title of ‘An A-rank Hunter Who Overwhelmingly Defeated an S-rank Hunter!’ garnering the protagonist world’s attention.
Parang had also come across the article online a while back.
‘Came across’ is a stretch; she just glanced at the title and moved on. By that point, she had long lost interest in the original story.
The article felt like this: [S-rank Hunter’s Humiliating Defeat… Exclusive Interview with Rising Supernova Han Siwoo.]
From that point on, there had been no news of Matilda.
It was not uncommon for Hunters to suddenly go missing. The higher the rank, the more enemies they tend to have.
Maybe she was ambushed while weakened after losing to Hunter Han Siwoo.
But the conversation that followed with Xiao was enough to shake Parang’s mind.
“Matilda Müller… I don’t know who that is. Must have been among the lower ranks of S-rank.”
“That’s the one! You know, the one who challenged Han Siwoo when he was an A-rank and got humiliated.”
“Are you sure you’re not mistaken? He’s Chinese.”
“What?”
“When Han Siwoo was an A-rank, the one who provoked him was S-rank. That was Li Shunfei.”
“No way, that can’t be right.”
“Trust me.”
“Are you sure you’re not misremembering, Xiao?”
“Ugh… why is this conversation going in that direction?”
“This is an important issue. Look up some articles related to this.”
Parang then took out her phone and began frantically searching.
“Here it is.”
Xiao was a bit faster.
Parang took her phone and diligently read the article.
[S-rank Hunter’s Humiliating Defeat… Exclusive Interview with Rising Supernova Han Siwoo.]
[Recently, a duel between two Hunters occurred at the Hunter Association Seoul Branch that has caught attention… Following the duel, Chinese Hunter Li Shunfei, who was defeated by Hunter Han Siwoo…]
Sure enough, Matilda’s name was mentioned nowhere in the article.
‘The original story has become tangled.’
From when exactly? No, more importantly, why?
Parang had deliberately avoided getting involved with the original protagonist party. She hadn’t taken even the slightest chance and hadn’t spoken to any of the protagonist’s group.
As the only existing entity capable of altering the flow of the original story, Parang hadn’t touched that flow at all.
But why? Why?
“I think I need to take action. ‘Dive.’”
“Huh? Dive? Really?”
Xiao casually said that maybe she just died in the sea and got swept in by the currents.
In reality, there are several massive currents connecting to the Hive in the South China Sea. Not that they exist on Earth.
She felt no need to explore those currents, since she hadn’t actually tried navigating through them herself.
“Just this once, please. This is really important.”
“Well… if you’re asking that much, I guess I can’t refuse…”
Xiao carefully held the skull with both hands while Parang placed her hand on top of Xiao’s.
And then, they dived into the memories of the skull. Splash—! With that sound, their vision shifted.
Parang momentarily pushed away the thoughts about the original story. The information they needed to discover was not something to gloss over.
It felt like the beginning of something huge, a significant event was about to unfold.
As they opened their eyes, a dark space appeared.
Matilda’s perspective.
“I can’t see anything, it’s too dark.”
That was Parang’s comment. Right now, Xiao and Parang were in a kind of shared dream, so conversation was possible.
“Right? Where is this?”
“When is it?”
“Three hours before death.”
“Let’s rewind a bit further.”
But even when they rewound the time, nothing changed. For three hours straight, there was nothing but black sight. Then, suddenly, the horrifying wail of a Gorgon echoed, followed by a crack, ending the memory.
“Hmm. Seems like we should move the time forward instead.”
“Let’s go back ten hours before death.”
But again, just dark sight.
“Let’s go to the very beginning. As far back as we can.”
“So far, twenty-four hours back from the time of death is the maximum.”
The view shifted dramatically, and this time they were inside a lit building.
“Let’s fast forward from here.”
As Xiao finished speaking, time began to flow rapidly.
Matilda was sitting in what looked like an office, dressed in black special forces gear, listening to something with people who had the same attire.
Words like target, infiltration, ambush, and assassination flew past.
From the outfit of the person presenting, it appeared to be from the World Government.
It was undoubtedly aimed at dealing with individuals obstructing the plan being carried out by the World Government.
Why was Matilda associated with this?
“Anyway, you have to acknowledge that the World Government is insidious. Sometimes it’s worse than the Silo.”
Though Xiao had spoken, Parang was only half-listening, deeply focused.
Once the briefing was over, Matilda exited the building.
Then she got into a van parked outside.
“Let’s skip the travel part.”
Whoosh—! The scenery changed, and Matilda got out of the car.
The assault team members, a total of eight—a total of nine special forces began to move quietly in the shadows.
And Parang’s physical form in reality showed a shocked expression.
She felt an overwhelming surge of emotion, manifesting outwardly.
And really, who could blame her? Parang stumbled over her words in shock.
“This, this is our village.”
She hoped they would just pass by, but the assault team moved without hesitation deeper into the village.
The elders tended to sleep heavily at night. The assault team moved quietly without alerting anyone to their target.
And the last thing that entered Matilda’s view was Parang’s home.
A chill ran down Parang’s spine in reality.
Once, on a night, while she was sleeping, the assault team of the World Government had come looking for her.
Along with the keyword, assassination.
But how did she survive?
No matter how you looked at it, if Parang was ambushed by that many people outside of the water, it would be incredibly difficult to survive.
“Wait, let’s slow down the speed here.”
“Was just about to do that. It’s your house, right?”
At that moment, Matilda’s memories began to flow at their original speed.
Static—
“This is Head. Beta team. Report on the situation.”
A voice came from a communicator resonating from deep in her chest.
To that, a person who appeared to be her superior next to Matilda replied.
“Beta team has arrived at the operation area. We will engage with Alpha and Gamma…”
And then the transmission cut off. From somewhere, dozens seemingly appeared and instantly ambushed them, pressing blades to their throats.
“What are you… Who the hell are you… Ugh!”
The superior couldn’t continue his sentence.
“Shut up.”
Because a knife had been shoved directly into his throat.
Based on the circumstances, the ‘superior’ seemed stronger than Matilda. So he must have been an at least mid-tier S-rank Hunter.
If someone like that dies instantly, it could mean two things.
They are either strong or have good equipment.
Either way, it is extremely dangerous.
And there were dozens of them.
‘Since when…?’
Parang was feeling chills. Had these people been hiding in her home while she was out and about?
Parang was weak when outside of the water. She knew that well.
So she typically kept a close eye on the security of her home.
She had spent a fair bit of money on the security systems. Not as much as Xiao, but still.
If there had been invaders, she would have known.
How did she not notice? Then she thought of something.
‘The day of the first broadcast…!’
On that day, she had been so exhausted that she had stumbled home and collapsed right into bed.
And her absence had been live-streamed during the broadcast.
‘No, even then, the alarms should have gone off.’
Besides, that day was only a few days ago. The bodily damage Matilda had suffered was clearly at least three weeks old from the time they had seen her.
It didn’t make sense.
But it was both nonsensical and something that had actually occurred.
If they wanted to, those individuals could have horrifically killed Parang while she slept.
Fortunately, their intent seemed to have been protective. Even though they had opportunities galore, they didn’t kill Parang and were currently dealing with the World Government’s assassination mission against her.
While Parang had been lost in thought, Xiao began to speak as if she had found something.
“Hey, these guys are from Silo.”
“What?”
“Look here. It’s the Silo Corporation logo.”
Xiao paused time.
“Look closely. The one on the left shoulder of the guy right in front of us.”
As Parang tuned in her focus, there it was, the Silo logo engraved small but clear.
“Wow, it really is.”
If that’s the case, then it also made sense why they had managed to evade detection. The security measures at Parang’s home.
Because it was all Silo Corp products.
It was impossible to obtain anything other than Silo products originally. The security, home appliances, and electronics sectors had long been completely dominated by Silo.
Before long, the nine World Government hunters with knives at their throats were thrown into the sea one by one.
And astonishingly, Matilda was still alive.
[A powerful entity is nearby.]
[Skill ‘Berserk’ activated.]
[Lifeforce dramatically increases.]
Only after entering Parang’s house and having a knife held to her throat did the skill activate.
Berserk is a personal skill that allows its user to gain vitality in the presence of someone stronger.
The more significant the difference, the more relaxed the ‘nearby’ condition becomes. If it’s only slightly stronger, up close. If it’s overwhelmingly strong, from far away.
This skill assists in combat but is also beneficial for detection.
Just by confirming that ‘there’s a strong person nearby,’ she was already a fitting candidate to join the strike team.
A sort of canary.
From here on, it’s something Parang didn’t know, but Matilda had indeed been assigned to the operation for that very purpose.
The World Government didn’t skimp on personnel. One B-rank Hunter, not just capturing but meant for assassination.
These guys were dispatched alongside eight S-rank Hunters and a canary in case of potential threats.
When they were serious, they meant business. Even if they had to use a knife meant for butchering a chicken to take down a chicken, they would catch their target for sure.
In response, Silo had confronted them with triple their numbers via ambush. Also, by leveraging Matilda’s acquired information to equip top-tier weapons to A-rank Hunters specializing in acceleration and assassination, they managed to avoid detection.
Of course, none of this behind-the-scenes maneuvering was known to Parang.
Then, what did the spear that suddenly appeared before Matilda mean?
There surely weren’t any ‘powerful entities’ around her.
But right now, Matilda was indeed receiving a buff to her vitality while thrown into the water with a knife embedded in her throat.
And Parang and Xiao had a rough idea of the reason why.
———!!
The nighttime sea is infinitely more dangerous than the daytime one.
Because the monster fish layer rises.
And the rising monster fish layer means that the monster fish move closer to the surface.
Something caught Matilda’s eye as she sank helplessly.
Currently, at a depth of 250m.
A 12m sea turtle.
It was a monster fish.
Parang knew what it was. At 12m, it was far too small, implying it was an individual overwhelmed by competition for food or habitat who had been pushed up here under the cover of night.
‘But isn’t this too shallow?’
Even the smallest should have been at least 50m deeper. She would need to investigate what exactly happened here at some point later.
Parang made a mental note of that detail.
Regardless of how it turned out, it was true that a monster fish had come up this much. Now was not the time to ponder possibilities; they needed to focus on the situation at hand.
This sea turtle was too adorably small to be called a monster fish.
However, Matilda’s status bar undoubtedly referred to it as a ‘powerful entity.’
And then she was swallowed whole by the sea turtle.
Then, there was only darkness.
The exact scene that Parang and Xiao had witnessed right after the ‘Dive.’
Sea turtles are famous for their long-distance, high-speed swimming.
They probably roamed around looking for habitats and got carried away by the ocean currents.
Since Parang’s previous paths wouldn’t have accommodated the monster fish, it could only be assumed that the currents leading to the Hive in Hong Kong ultimately brought it to that place.
That would also explain why the ‘setting off’ had been there. Light accessories like earrings can easily move through a current.
Xiao silently increased the playback speed.
The same dark scenery.
Matilda survived for about twenty hours inside the turtle and was then devoured by the Gorgon, leading to her death.
This also explained the discrepancies in the time frame.
Having been digested alive for twenty hours inside the monster fish, the state of her corpse would lead Parang to conclude that at least three weeks had passed since she had ingested the Gorgon.
After the ‘Dive’ ended, the two were rendered speechless.
They needed to organize the multitude of questions floating in their minds.
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