Matan’s Shooter

TL: xLordFifth

ED: 

For the greater goal of the New Continent Expedition, sacrificing the individual was inevitable. 

‘Damn it… damn, damn! Damn Middle Earth for playing with people like this!’

Leeha: Understood. Even if I have to die, I will restore the purification pool to normal.

However, Leeha did not take that approach.

‘I’m not playing Middle Earth just for fun. I have a clear goal to earn surgery fees. However, even so! I don’t want to sell my conscience for guilt-ridden money. I know clearly that this mermaid is not a real human but an NPC!’

Was he pretending to be good?

Was he being a hypocrite?

The important thing was that choosing that path was too one-dimensional now that he knew the direction ‘Middle Earth was leading.’

It might not be hypocrisy but just a simple mistake.

Sea Bream was shedding tears.

“Thank you. Really, thank you. As a water spirit and a member of the Undine, even if this body turns into foam and disappears, I will repay this favor.”

Leeha: Foam… it would be troublesome if you turn into foam. If Sea Bream-nim makes a mistake, I’ll be in big trouble too. Haha.

One of the failure conditions for the quest was the death of the Sea God’s Guard Captai. Thus, he began to plan a strategy for infiltrating the purification pool, dispelling the awkward atmosphere caused by Sea Bream volunteering as bait.

Since Sea Bream volunteered to become the bait, there was no reason to hesitate.

About five minutes after Sea Bream volunteered, fishmen suddenly appeared near the Dragon Palace. 

“Hakit?”

“Ha, what! A mermaid!? How did a mermaid come here?”

“How he got here is none of our business. Get him-!”

Sea Bream began to fight with two sentry fishmen, shouting loudly. The sudden movement caused a ripple that was soon detected by all the fishmen near the Dragon Palace.

“Hakikiki!”

“Hakkyu, hakkyu!”

Shwaaaaack-!

After confirming the fishmen swimming rapidly, Sea Bream easily defeated the two fishmen he was facing and started to flee.

“These bastards! I, Sea Bream, will personally deal with the Sea God’s Guardian Captain!”

Hakyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyukyu—–!

The procession of fishmen chasing after Sea Bream was unending.

When the number reached twenty, forty, and eighty, by the time it increased to one hundred, those hiding behind the rocks—Andercon, Leeha, and Blaugrune—slowly moved towards the entrance of the purification pool to avoid being detected by the fishmen.

‘Fish heads are fish heads.’ Even the guards protecting the entrance of the purification pool chased. Leeha was once again amazed at their remarkable intelligence.

“I should have gone… Captain, is he okay?”

Leeha: Don’t think about that, Anderson-ssi. Once it has started, we should focus on our work.

“Well, yes. Yes. I understand.”

Anderson was regretting that he didn’t volunteer to be the bait. Leeha understood that he might not understand it in various ways.

‘Anderson is faster than Sea Bream, but handling emergency situations and stamina might be a bit challenging for him.’

If it were Sea Bream, he would disrupt and escape from even a relatively tight encirclement, buying time. But Anderson? Being unable to handle weapons properly, there was a possibility that he wouldn’t be able to escape even if only a few fishmen set up an encirclement.

‘No, even before that, he might not have a tactical understanding of concepts like encirclement or weaknesses… Sea Bream put him in the Sea God’s Guardian, but it’s just a possibility, and he still needs to grow a bit… As Anderson himself said, for a ‘low-rank’ water spirit like him, the role of bait this time is too much,’ Leeha judged.

“Hey there!”

“Grook…,,,”

The entrance to the purification pool was a wide-open hole. It looked small, but that was because the comparison was the ‘sea.’ In reality, it was a hole as big as a football stadium.

‘I can’t grasp how deep it is.’

To Leeha, who swam in the vast sea, the fear of confinement seemed to arise anew. In the hole, where the light didn’t come in properly, there was not even a glimmer of light, and naturally, the end was not visible.

Leeha: How far should we go?

“I haven’t been deep enough to know, but Sea Bream said the purification pool would know. He said it emits light from the deepest part.”

[Kyuuuu.]

Blaugrun, embraced by Leeha, showed an expression that seemed to say he was not happy.

Now that Sea Bream was gone, Anderson was holding Leeha, and Leeha, while listening to Blaugrun’s cries, looked around.

‘There’s nothing to see, no light… With this level of darkness, even a small light should be visible.’

As Leeha was just descending from the entrance, there were still some lights above his head. However, as the depth increased, the color of the water turned darker.

“Guruuk…”

Bubbles rose. However, the air bubbles were not visible.

‘I can’t see anything even if I open the character window. It’s pitch black, right?’

Leeha thought that using the brightness of the system window might help, but nothing worked.

As he descended further, Leeha felt his senses dulling.

“Lee-Leeha-nim, are you okay?”

[Kyuu?]

Anderson, the mermaid, was in the same situation. There was no sight. Even sound didn’t travel properly underwater. Even for a mermaid, it was a space where they could feel a sense of unease.

“Bu-gru-guk…”

Feeling Anderson’s touch and recalling the sensation of Blaugrun’s scales wrapped around him, Leeha reluctantly regained his composure. But it didn’t last long. Whether he opened or closed his eyes, the darkness that he couldn’t tell whether it was opening or closing was trying to take away even his senses. Leeha thought it was fortunate that Anderson and Blaugrun were with him.

‘Dangerous. This is a dangerous place.’

If he were alone, he might have lost even his sense of direction, becoming lost in this place.

‘Even if a monster appears, I won’t be able to see it. In the past, they said there were no monsters…’

Since the Sea God turned into a fishman, nothing could be guaranteed. The underwater fear, in this moment of invisibility if a giant anglerfish were to come up with its mouth wide open?

Anderson, Leeha, and Blaugrun would be swallowed and die just like that. Even until the moment of being swallowed, they wouldn’t even realize the existence of the giant anglerfish.

Gulp.

Leeha swallowed his saliva. Perhaps it was the effect of a mental attack spell that could be cast by a warlock. In this place that stimulated his dark imagination and oppressed him, even the moment he was swallowed by a giant anglerfish. He had to think of practical thoughts to get rid of the fear.

‘The quest failure alert didn’t sound. Even if I can’t see, I can hear sounds, so I would know if Sea Bream died. It’s still okay.’ 

However, it was unknown how long it would remain okay. It might already be in a situation just before death with the siege set up. He had to hurry. But the endless darkness was hindering even Anderson’s speed. No, speed?

‘Speed? What’s my speed right now? Am I moving?’ Leeha exhaled with a whoosh.

“Bu-glug…” The sound of bubbles being produced could be heard. However, there was no way to know how much he was moving or where he had moved.

‘Even the simple light adaptation of the eyeballs is impossible. There’s no way to see anything in this total darkness.’ 

His thoughts seemed to shrink as he descended into the deep sea as if the enormous pressure was limiting the scope of his thinking. It was the unrelenting power of the darkness that made it seem like he couldn’t expand his thoughts beyond the sensations of his retina, fingers, and toes, rather than thinking about the big picture.

Leeha vigorously shook his head, trying to reverse his thoughts. This was the moment to stay calm, to remain composed. Relax. Release tension from the waist. He was just going to clean the purification chamber. In other words, he was a plumber. Stay calm. Don’t get drowsy. After all, he was a plumber protecting the Earth, just like the Rio brothers with the surname “Ma” said.

“Bu-glug…” Nothing had changed, neither Leeha nor Anderson. However, the effect was clear. The thought that had refused to expand until just now began to loosen. Jokes were meant to release tension, so it was said that jokes should be made at the most crucial moments. At least, this theory of humor definitely worked for Leeha at this very moment.

“Kikik, I used to think of myself as a Korean when watching that comic movie. It feels like such a betrayal. Using a good name like Luigi and making it sound like Mari-“

At this point, when such thoughts were occurring, and the concept of time had become vague after entering the purification chamber, a faint light appeared from somewhere far below.

“Oh! Oh! Anderson, is that light? Am I not seeing things?”

“Well, it seems so. Light—it seems to be! It looks like the purification chamber!”

After being away from the light for so long, Leeha couldn’t be sure if he was seeing things correctly. Blaugrun quickly made the sound of ‘kyu, kyu, kyu.’

“Buglug, bugut?!”

Is Blaugrun happy too? Leeha thought of saying that but hesitated. He still couldn’t see the faces of Anderson or Blaugrun. The crying sound of Blaugrun, who was in Leeha’s arms, was getting faster and faster.

“Anderson! Detect—”

“Huh? What’s—what’s moving? But what… is it? I don’t know. It’s the first time I’ve felt a wave like this—a wave that feels like several giant squid legs. But it’s different from a kraken or squid. It seems like there’s a huge tail between those squid legs…” Before Leeha could finish speaking, Anderson finished the detection.

Even though he was lower-ranked, he was a merman and a water spirit. He had the ability to discern the movements of a kraken through waves. He had easily classified numerous fish and whales he had encountered so far. But what if it was a wave he had never felt before? ‘No way… 

[Kyu! Kyukyukyu! Kyu!]’

He felt uneasy. The faint light that had been visible in the distance swayed, swayed like it was dancing, making Leeha even more uneasy. “Shuuu…” The light was gradually approaching Leeha.

“Oh, even though it’s my first time feeling it, it feels like a familiar wave… Where have I felt this before?”

“Shuuuuu…” The light continued to approach.

Leeha could be sure of his uneasiness based on Anderson’s muttered words and the approaching light. However, it was not a comforting certainty.

‘The sea god is a mermaid. Mermaids have giant tails. And that sea god?’ Familiar yet strange. Moreover, what did Sea Bream say? Two proofs of the sea god’s abilities.

‘One of them was… what was it?’ And there was more. Something the mermaids had said. Even the mermaids couldn’t know the sea god’s location, they had said.

Leeha could instantly recall these two things.

‘One of the sea god’s abilities—revealing their own abilities with a crown that emits light! And even the current location is unknown! Then that—’

“[Kyu! Kyu!]”

Bugluglug-!

Leeha shouted while spewing bubbles.

“It’s the sea godddddd!”

“Huh, sea god?! Wow, wowaaaahhh!”

Shuwaaaahhh—!

Now Leeha could clearly see it. And it had to be understood that Anderson couldn’t detect the sea god’s waves. Was it three times bigger than Sea Bream? To call it a mermaid, it had an unreasonably large waist, and tentacles spread out in all directions like the hem of a skirt.

Holding Leeha and Blaugrun, Anderson started swimming vigorously, his tail moving wildly.

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