Quadruple Collision Warning
Damp and clammy air brushed past the tip of his nose. Blinking his eyes open, Yeo Dowoon had to cough convulsively for a while, spitting out all the salty seawater.
Damn it. His ears were stuffed and his throat ached. His eyeballs, pickled in the salty energy, felt like they would plop right out and roll across the floor at any moment. Cough, cough! As soon as Yeo Dowoon regained his senses, he muttered.
“……Captain?”
His voice spread out unusually deep and heavy.
It was an unfamiliar voice even to his own ears, so Yeo Dowoon was a bit startled and quickly looked around.
‘Where is this?’
But the surroundings were so dark that it only felt like being trapped in a pitch-black cave. While he was flustered, Yeo Dowoon noticed that the floor he was sitting on was squirming and vibrating.
It was subtly squishy and warm, just like…….
“Fuck! Don’t tell me this is inside a monster’s belly?”
Once he gained a certain level of understanding, horror came as if it had been waiting. Cursing under his breath, Yeo Dowoon hurriedly stood up, staggered for a moment, then soon tripped over something hard and lost his balance.
He spun around and barely avoided falling, when he heard someone’s mocking laughter.
“Are you doing ballet?”
It was the voice of someone he’d believed until just moments ago he could only hear again in the afterlife. Yeo Dowoon tilted his head, wondering if this place wasn’t actually inside a monster’s belly but hell.
His guess couldn’t exactly be called wrong either. Having entered inside a monster’s body, whether his life was attached or detached, it was no different from waiting for his turn to go to hell.
After imagining all sorts of things, Yeo Dowoon soon opened his tightly sealed lips and answered.
“Why is the Captain…….”
Though the surroundings were too dim to examine closely, he could conclude just by confirming that upright silhouette. It’s Kwon Jeonghoo. He’s still alive.
“Why are you alive?”
Kwon Jeonghoo, who had been one step away from becoming fish food. Kwon Jeonghoo, whom I let slip away.
“Thanks to you.”
Even at Yeo Dowoon’s question that seemed to find his survival questionable, Kwon Jeonghoo appeared leisurely. As the atmosphere settled awkwardly, he instead asked a peaceful question.
“Done sightseeing?”
“There’s nothing to see, so what would I be sightseeing….”
Yeo Dowoon retorted as if troubled and walked toward him.
Instead of the usual pattering footsteps, a strange noise arose as if walking across a trampoline. Startled, Yeo Dowoon scrunched up his eyes and asked irritably.
“No matter how I look at it, this seems like inside a monster’s body, right?”
Though warm and humid energy was rising and steaming, which would normally make one want to warm up their body, thinking that all this warmth originated from the monster’s intestines only made his spine grow colder.
Kwon Jeonghoo declared in a blunt tone.
“The monsterization itself seems only about halfway progressed, so it’s still difficult to call it a monster.”
“Seriously…. You care about the strangest things.”
Yeo Dowoon, who had come right up close to him, scrutinized more thoroughly than ever the straight nose bridge on that face boasting clean lines, and features like those wide-open eyes.
Though his vision was dyed pitch-black, there was no way he couldn’t recognize such familiar features. Yeo Dowoon let out a small laugh and muttered to himself in wonder.
“Wow, it really is the Captain. You were alive.”
Then Kwon Jeonghoo raised his hand soaked with seawater and flicked his forehead with a thwack. Ow! Though it was only medium strength at most, it hurt like hell. Yeo Dowoon snapped irritably.
“It’s not like you have a hobby of hitting people, so what!”
“You seemed unable to come to your senses, so I’m checking on you. Do you have a hobby of turning living people into the deceased?”
“I thought you were deceased, that’s why. I was wondering how to hold your funeral.”
It was a mutter that never once considered the fact that he himself could have died. Kwon Jeonghoo snorted and spoke like a leisurely person enjoying the quiet rural atmosphere.
“Unless it’s a joint funeral, I’d be too wronged to die alone, so I can’t.”
Yeo Dowoon, who had been gently rubbing his swollen forehead, plopped down as if completely drained. Drip, drip—slowly falling water droplets continuously hit the crown of his head.
To think he’d end up inside a monster’s belly in his lifetime. As an unpleasant silence lingered, Yeo Dowoon was the first to turn toward Kwon Jeonghoo. It was to see if Kwon Jeonghoo might be feeling afraid.
But his eyes were too dark to be certain what kind of face he was making. A worried voice flowed out as if considering Kwon Jeonghoo.
“Are you alright?”
The sight of his back as he handled the berserk state in Ko Ijae’s place and jumped toward the Sirens after pulling away Baek Seonwoo’s pain was still vivid. Recalling that scene made Yeo Dowoon’s heart sink with a thud once again.
Kwon Jeonghoo, who had roughly swept back his stuck hair, began a general explanation.
“It’s fortunate the monsterization progress is only this much. Otherwise, we’d have had no choice but to file a death report.”
“…….”
“Before the completion stage, the cells rearrange themselves, emptying out the insides like a large ship.”
Monsterization of a host by a parasitic monster consists of the transformation stage, transition stage, and completion stage in that order.
Hosts who enter the transformation stage repeat the process of their body cells twisting and emptying out the insides, and when they reach the transition stage, they begin full-scale preparation to become a habitat for the parasitic monster with that cleaned-out body.
Perhaps because of this, some unauthorized organizations illegally brought in transition-stage monster corpses to use as exhibition halls.
Since they had to be corpses large enough for people to come and go, most purchased whale monster corpses from the black market. The dealers were naturally unregistered Espers from all around the world.
“What kind of whale do you think it is?”
When Yeo Dowoon asked carefully, Kwon Jeonghoo retorted while stroking the floor that was pulsing and undulating.
“Who goes around memorizing whale species.”
“You never know. You might have learned it when you went to school.”
“Why would they teach whale species in school?”
“I never went, so how would I know?”
It was a pointless conversation. When Yeo Dowoon tried to end it saying that was enough, Kwon Jeonghoo replied carelessly.
“Once the transition stage is complete, we’ll probably move to the digestive system together.”
Meaning they’d have to escape this place before that happened. But who would be sitting here quietly not knowing that. Yeo Dowoon, with a slightly complicated feeling, opened his mouth slowly.
“Captain.”
Those A-class Espers he’d heard about during the strategy briefing. If they too had been caught by the same monster…, the thought suddenly welled up that they might still be here waiting for rescue.
After deliberation, Yeo Dowoon opened his mouth.
“Those A-class Espers who were completely wiped out.”
But Kwon Jeonghoo didn’t give him time to harbor clumsy hope.
“Give up on that expectation. There’s no guarantee they were caught by the same monster, and even if they were, they would have all been digested during the transition from transformation to transition stage.”
“…….”
“I’m telling you not to waste energy on something where there’s no chance of saving them, Dowoon.”
Then Yeo Dowoon let out a heavy sigh as if feeling futile. The ocean smell stinging his nose was only tormenting. As he continued to cough lightly, Kwon Jeonghoo gently patted his back.
Once human warmth touched him, his agitated heart seemed to calm down somewhat.
“……Will we die too?”
Yeo Dowoon asked, deliberately trying to sound indifferent.
The situation was far too bad to be frantic and desperate about fearing death. There had to be at least a slim possibility of being able to get out alive to try devising a method.
Right now, in fact, they had no choice but to sit quietly leaning back and just waste time.
In an instant, rustle—the sound of clothes brushing was heard.
“It’s not a fish, it’s a mammal.”
“…….”
“A whale.”
Before he knew it, Kwon Jeonghoo’s shoulder was stuck to his like gum. It was stuffy but he didn’t feel like avoiding it. Yeo Dowoon quietly listened to him.
He felt both touched and pitiful, thinking Kwon Jeonghoo might want to give a whale lecture before dying. Nodding his head saying yes, yes, Yeo Dowoon suddenly felt like he’d been hit in the back of the head.
“Every time it breathes, it has to come up above the sea surface…….”
Before he knew it, Kwon Jeonghoo was running his finger down along Yeo Dowoon’s cheek.
“If we attack at the right timing, we can escape.”
“…For that, we can’t secure visibility.”
In a place without a single ray of light, no attack could be used carelessly. It would be disastrous if he accidentally froze and shattered Kwon Jeonghoo by mistake.
But Kwon Jeonghoo continued speaking with a calm demeanor.
“I told you, didn’t I? To breathe, it has to come up.”
He firmly grabbed Yeo Dowoon’s chin and made him look upward. Though it was just a pitch-black ceiling now, the moment the whale monster burst above the sea surface, dazzling light would fill it.
Looking at just the conclusion, it was a strategy where Yeo Dowoon alone would have to suffer.
“…Captain, you’re surprisingly cerebral, aren’t you?”
Even with his chin firmly fixed, Yeo Dowoon praised him without wariness. Thinking that now they just had to wait for the timing, a sense of security rapidly came over him.
But even after fully understanding the plan, when Kwon Jeonghoo didn’t release his chin, doubt arose. When Yeo Dowoon glanced at him, Kwon Jeonghoo instantly whoosh—closed the distance.
He asked.
“……Why did you follow me?”
