Episode 64
I was so stunned that I shoved him away with all my strength. He let go without resistance, but the momentum sent me sinking deeper.
‘Damn it!’
Just then, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me upward. His arm locked around my waist to anchor me to him as he surged toward the surface.
When we drew close again, the memory of what just happened reflexively came to my mind again—and I wanted to push him off. But if I did, I’d sink down there all by myself. Swallowing the impulse, I stayed still until we breached the water.
With my head finally out of the nightmarish water, I gasped frantically, gulping air like crazy.
“Haah… Haah…”
Once I was done taking in air until my lungs seemed to be about to burst, I became a bit steadier. Then, the first thing I thought I ought to do was escape this awkward guy’s embrace— I shifted cautiously until a singsong voice hummed in my ear.
“Ah, siren…”
That thing was still left.
Distracted by the imminent threat of death, I’d briefly forgotten about the main zombie.
The rage toward that creature grew as I remembered how it nearly drowned me in this hellish water.
“Are you okay now?”
“….”
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“…I’m fine, so let go of me.”
“But if I do, Noona, you’ll sink again…”
He was right. The only reason I was barely staying afloat was because he held me. If I pushed him away, I’d plunge straight back to the depths.
I glanced around frantically. If I could grab onto something, I wouldn’t need to cling to him. A structure attached to the ceiling caught my eye—I went for it, but he stopped me.
“Just stay like this.”
“No, I’ll find my own way to stay alive.”
So please, let go, or I’ll really die from embarrassment.
I swallowed the rest, fighting hard to suppress the mortifying memory that kept trying to come back to my mind.
“Is this how you’ll treat me? After what’s between us?”
“W-what?! ‘Between us’? We’re nothing! There’s nothing between us!”
“Ha? Really, nothing? Hmm? Saying that after I saved you and even gave you mouth-to-mouth…”
“Argh! Stop!”
I didn’t want to hear the rest! I screamed to drown out his words.
“Let’s–Let’s just deal with the main zombie! We can’t stay like this forever!”
“Did you hate it, Noona? I thought you liked it since you leaned into it so much…”
“Enough! Stop—! Quit the nonsense. Just… stop!”
“But…”
“Argh! Argh!”
“Okay okay, I’ll drop it.”
Relief washed over me as he finally stopped pushing the topic.
…My throat is sore.
I kept yelling at him to tell him to shut up, so my voice was barely leaving my throat now. After clearing my throat roughly, I decided to explain the main zombie to him.
I was worried about giving too much info to someone already suspicious of my identity, but I’d done it in the last stage too. Right now, I just wanted to get out of this hellhole as soon as possible.
“It’s a beluga whale. You’ve heard of them, right? Docile whales that follow humans and sing sweetly. People love them.”
“Yeah, though the one I know looks… a little different.”
“You’ve seen it already?”
“I happened to catch a glimpse of it back there,” he replied, grimacing slightly. His reaction made sense. The beluga whales we know are sleek, pale, and graceful. But that thing was grotesque—mottled with black patches, chunks of rotten flesh torn away.
“It’s a zombie. Don’t expect it to look like the original.”
To be honest, when I first encountered it in the game, I was also shocked. The screen labeled it “Beluga,” but it’s design screamed ‘risen from hell’. Zombified, sure—but still…
What truly unnerved me was how this abomination replicated the beluga’s signature trait: their canary-like songs. To hear that haunting melody from that thing…
But the shock faded after a while. It was first and foremost an enemy—one that had to be taken down to move forward. What I needed right now was a strategy.
Belugas were famously intelligent animals. One would hope zombification might dull its mind, just as it did its appearance, but no—its cunning mind remained intact.
“Its song has a hypnotic effect…I’m not sure whether to call it hypnotic or brainwashing. Either way, listen too long, and your mind goes blank. You become its puppet.”
And it was sadistic. It didn’t just kill its prey. It toyed with them—prolonging their agony until they died, then it devoured the corpse.
“To it, we’re not food. We’re toys. It knows exactly how to break someone without killing them outright. It’ll play with its prey until they’re driven to end themselves.”
That’s why we’re still alive for now. If this creature had the mindless hunger of a typical zombie, it would’ve sent its fish minions on us already.
I wondered if I should consider its twisted personality a blessing or not…
“But do you know where it is? It doesn’t seem nearby…”
“Probably not on this side.”
If it’s elsewhere, ignoring its prey, then something just as “entertaining” must be holding its attention.
Like Seo Ga-eun and Park Jun-woo?
Now that I thought about it—they weren’t here. They’d been with us moments ago, but I’d forgotten them completely, distracted by that accursed mermaid. Wait—my gems were missing too. Dammit! That mermaid… I hated it from the start. Why’d it have to pull the same trick thrice? Those gems—I’d gotten them so painstakingly, only to lose them underwater. At least I recovered one, but the other two…
What now? There was no way I could search for them like this. We’d have to wait for the water to drain. But who knew how far the current had swept those tiny gems in this sprawling aquarium…?
The more I thought about it, the more hopeless and frustrated I felt.
“Is something wrong?”
“…No. Let’s just focus on how to kill that thing first.”
Perhaps my expression wasn’t good, because he asked the question with a concerned voice. I dodged answering, not wanting to explain about the gems.
Thinking about the gems made me feel sick, so I decided to deal with the creature first and think about it later.
“Are you still struggling to control shadows underwater?”
“I’m… getting the hang of it, slowly.”
“What exactly is the hard part?”
“Huh?”
“You said it’s hard to control them underwater. What’s the problem?”
Honestly, I could barely keep myself from flailing in the water—asking him to manipulate shadows here felt like piling on pressure on his head. But I pressed, hoping to help. At my question, he paused, silent for a bit, then finally answered shortly after:
“Well… I can create them. Fish, whales, sharks—anything aquatic.”
“And?”
“The problem is… movement. With quadrupedal animals, I’ve seen how they hunt and run. Easy to visualize. But fish?”
“…”
“Their fins and tails act like limbs, but… how do you make them flow underwater? It keeps… glitching out, I guess?”
Hmm. His vague explanation left me just as lost.
So—quadrupeds were easier because their limb movements were familiar to him, but fish, with their tiny fins and whole-body undulations, were harder to mentally map and control?
‘True. The only attacks I can imagine a fish doing are body-slamming or nibbling with that tiny mouth.’
It’s not like they could swipe their fins like a tiger’s claws…
“Fair. It’s tricky.”
“Exactly. If only there were something that moves like a land animal…”
Something land-like underwater… A turtle? Too weak. A crocodile? Its stubby legs can’t slash zombies…
Then again, why stick to aquatic creatures? It was a shadow anyway, they weren’t alive. Why not make land animals and control them here? It’s not like they needed to surface for air.
But when I suggested it while thinking like that, he said he could do it, but it wouldn’t be as efficient as moving on land. His mind was supposedly too wired to the fact that they were ‘land animals’, making them feel “off” and incompatible while moving underwater.
So back to marine life. If fish and turtles wouldn’t cut it…
“Wait—what about this? You need something that you can move freely, right?”
I got the perfect idea. Something that matched his needs and powerful enough to crush the beluga.
“Are you into cephalopods*1*A cephalopod is a type of animal that belongs to a group of marine creatures like octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and nautiluses.?”
“Huh…?”
“Y’know, the classic thing you think of when you hear sea monster.”
“…I’m not sure what you mean.”
He tilted his head as if he really did not know. I sighed.
How do you not get it? When it comes to the sea, you think of Pirates. When it comes to pirates, you think of sea monsters. And when you think of sea monsters—
“A kraken.”
*A cephalopod is a type of animal that belongs to a group of marine creatures like octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and nautiluses.
Shit’s about to go downnn
Btw I just wanted to say I’m so thankful for your comments on my previous upload. Your encouraging words bring me a lot of comfort—to know there are people that know me even when I don’t talk with them specifically. To think you thought of me enough to care is enough to bring me joy.
I will continue to do my best with what I can! Updates will continue to be irregular for a bit because my finals are next week, please wish me luck! In the meantime, here’s a meme:
ننتظر الفصل القادم ، شكراً على الترجمة 🫂🫶🏻🫶🏻