Ch.50Shark Sighting (2)

In the world of <Monster Front>, monsters generally have two dispositions.

Most are “hostile” toward humanity, while those with benevolent tendencies are extremely rare.

In fact, during my ten years, the only benevolent monsters I’ve encountered were Disappearance and Weapon.

Well, there were a few more in the original work, but I’ll talk about that later. Anyway, the girl standing before me now is neither one nor the other.

If I had to classify her, she’d be a “neutral” monster.

“Are you… a hero?”

“No. I’m Kang Janghoon, a sidekick candidate for the Hero Creator Girl.”

“Ah, I see. So you’re a sidekick.”

A girl standing in front of a glass wall reminiscent of the sea, her wave-like blue hair fluttering.

However, I shouldn’t be fooled by her cute appearance.

Despite how she looks, if there’s “water” nearby, she could conditionally demonstrate top-tier strength among Class 1 danger-level monsters.

“If you follow me, I’ll safely evacuate you to the surface.”

“Yes, please do, Mr. Janghoon.”

Thalassophobia.

The Deep Sea Monster, born from the unknown depths of the sea, was a boss monster that shed its girlish appearance and transformed into a hideous creature during the third anniversary event.

And at that moment, the <Monster Front> community was turned upside down.

In a bad way, of course.

[WTF why is Deep Sea a monster?]

[Wasn’t she a gacha character like Disappearance? FFS]

[For real LMAO did the devs all lose their minds?]

[They said something big was coming so I was waiting, and they really made a big monster, those bastards LMAO]

In truth, long before becoming the third anniversary boss monster, the Deep Sea Monster had been gradually revealing her presence since the first anniversary.

She was one of the “heroine candidates” who had quietly built a fandom among players.

As the famous saying in subculture goes:

“But I’m cute!”

Despite committing mass slaughter by sharing a bit of her power with her fish-type monster followers.

Well, as you know, in this industry, if a character design is good enough, people tend to forgive anything with a “who cares?” attitude…

“What the fuck?! My playable character?”

The Deep Sea Monster, whose only “crime” was sharing a little power with subordinates who wanted to become stronger.

After undergoing extreme whitewashing in this manner, and since she herself had never directly killed anyone, she became a character that once drove both fans and haters crazy.

And then came the fateful third anniversary.

“KRAAAK! KRAK!”

“What? She can’t even speak anymore?!”

In the third anniversary update that everyone had been looking forward to, she had been “promoted”… no, demoted to a “semi-special class monster” who had lost the ability to speak human language, as if she’d been taught a harsh lesson.

It was a moment that left all players feeling cold below the waist.

‘Thanks to that, Deep Sea Monster-related punishment doujinshi drastically decreased afterward…’

She was once a character so “loved”—or rather, mercilessly violated—in the secondary creation market that even famous doujin artists drew her.

Anyway, she’s a monster who is neutral on the surface.

She shares a bit of her power with fish-type monsters born from her if they want it, but she’s not inherently hostile toward humans.

“It’s dangerous here. You need to escape quickly.”

A being not even mentioned in the first chapter of the original story.

By the time the Shark Monster started causing real trouble two days later, she had probably already left the aquarium.

And now she’s here.

…This was dangerous.

Deep Sea is the “master” whom Shark serves.

If she were to intervene out of concern for her minion, Carmilla would be killed instantly.

So, reluctantly, like returning a wild animal to nature…

This time, the best course of action was to evacuate her as quickly as possible, pretending not to know anything.

‘It would be a waste to eliminate her… especially since there are still unresolved plot points about her even in the original work.’

But then.

“Excuse me, Mr. Sidekick. Your name was Kang Janghoon, right?”

“Huh? Um… yes?”

The Deep Sea Monster suddenly stopped with superhuman strength while being led through the aquarium corridor by my hand.

“Um, excuse me?”

“……”

This is strange.

Wasn’t the Deep Sea Monster supposed to be neutral—neither particularly protecting humans nor killing them?

But now she’s hugging me so tightly I can’t break free.

Sniff sniff… sniff sniff.

‘…Miss Hoshino?’

Like Miss Hoshino in heat, she started sniffing my scent.

“You… have eaten too many of my children.”

“…What?”

Mother of the Sea.

Another epithet attached to the Deep Sea Monster.

True to that name, perhaps it was because I’d eaten nothing but omakase for the past five days in the fish-surrounded aquarium.

The fishy smell deeply embedded in my intestines.

Having noticed that smell, she briefly abandoned her usual demeanor of a refined young lady.

She emitted killing intent like an angry cat.

And now, she was hugging me tightly as if she might break my spine at any moment.

Craaack…

“Why did you eat so many fish? No matter what, this smell is too much…”

“W-well, I’ve only had fish to eat recently… Urgh?!”

“Even so, this is too much. And pollock roe of all things! How could you cruelly eat newborn babies with seasoning?!”

CRACK!

The pain was like my waist bending into a bow.

Pollock roe, myeongran-jeot.

Perhaps because I had recently eaten even such young babies, even getting refills…

The Deep Sea Monster, who was like a grandmother to pollock eggs, seemed ready to completely fold my waist here, turning me into someone who could never walk again.

***

“Personally, I like humans who use the sea most admirably.”

“W-wait a minute…!”

“But at the same time, I despise humans, the only animals that pollute the sea.”

Two emotions at opposite extremes.

Liking while hating, finding repulsive yet simultaneously lovable.

Humans.

To the Deep Sea Monster, humans were such contradictory creatures.

Like the feelings of a “cat mom” who can’t keep cats at home but wants to freely share food with them outside.

The reason she doesn’t hunt humans directly is because, as much as they pollute the sea, the humans who try to keep the sea clean are so…

CRACK!

Lovable to the point where she wants to kill them.

That’s why, out of her last remaining conscience, she didn’t hunt humans directly.

Except, like now…

In cases where someone eats babies in “egg” form that haven’t even been born yet, like pollock roe or caviar.

“Mr. Janghoon, was it? I didn’t kill you. But I’ve definitely repaid the debt on behalf of tens of thousands of young pollocks.”

The Deep Sea Monster, who had broken the self-proclaimed Creator Girl’s sidekick at an “impossible angle.”

After roughly tossing the waist-folded Kang Janghoon into a corner of the aquarium, she was about to head to where her minions were.

‘Still, as a mother, I should help a little, right?’

She worried slightly about becoming a “mama’s boy.”

But she disliked even more the sight of her baby shark, to whom she had shared power, being mercilessly slaughtered by heroes.

Originally, she had planned to leave this place tomorrow.

Come to think of it, her baby shark seemed lucky.

With its mother nearby, there was no chance of it being eliminated.

Crack. Crackle.

“Huh?”

…Just as she was thinking that.

“Mr. Janghoon?”

Strange bone sounds began to emanate from the body of the man whose genitals had been twisted behind his back.

Then, gradually rising from an impossible angle…

“KRAAAAAAAA!”

He began to let out a bizarre scream that could never be produced by human vocal cords.

“…Eh?”

When the slightly bewildered Deep Sea Monster looked back at him, somehow…

“Grrrr…”

“You were… a monster?”

The man who had looked somewhat attractive had somehow transformed into a human-form monster with a horned mask and blonde hair.

“Mr. Janghoon, you were a monster?”

“Grrrrrr…”

“Could it be that you were mimicking a human form?”

The man she thought was human turned out to be a monster!

Of course, this was surprising enough. But for Deep Sea who witnessed Kang Janghoon’s true identity, there was something even more shocking.

Namely…

“That face…”

“Gruk?”

“That horned mask… is it real?”

“GRUK?!”

Two eyes trembling in disbelief the moment she saw Kang Janghoon’s form.

The blue eyes that had always been half-closed in the original work until she suddenly transformed into a monster were now wide open in disbelief.

Janghoon, who had transformed into a monster out of necessity to survive, was equally confused.

‘What’s with this reaction? …Could it be she knows something about me?’

Well, the Deep Sea Monster had lived even longer than the Weapon Monster if you looked at her experience, so…

Was this what they call a vibe that comes from experience?

“I can’t believe it!”

Seeing her make a face that was usually only seen in doujinshi when shocked, Kang Janghoon gulped.

“That form…!”

Honestly, Kang Janghoon himself was curious too.

Despite investigating whenever he had time over the past ten years, he could never figure out the true nature of his epithet.

What could it be?

Like a child born without knowing their parents’ faces searching for their family, he was curious about his identity as a monster, knowingly or unknowingly.

And the Deep Sea Monster told him:

“You massacred pollock babies with such a hideous form?!”

“…Gruk?”

‘…Eh?’

You’re the one who’s surprised?

“C-cruel! How dare a mere monster, not even human, devour my adorable children?!”

Ah, come to think of it, didn’t the Deep Sea Monster dislike monsters even more than humans if they weren’t sea-related kin?

“I’ll kill you.”

So much for recognizing my true identity.

Having done nothing wrong except eating pollock roe, I suddenly found myself at odds with the Deep Sea Monster.