WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 193: Under Black Water (11)

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Their course bent sharply. The obstacle was a detached residential zone: more than a hundred ships, large and small, lashed around a cruise ship that served as the downtown district. Even though it was only one piece that had broken away, it was wide enough for its left and right edges to vanish into the fog. The whole time they skirted it to starboard, Gyeoul felt their remaining time running out.

Kyaaaaaak! Gyeoul saw a woman being bitten and torn by a mutant. No one helped her. Everyone was simply running in every direction. Most were people weakened by hunger. They ran with desperate faces, but they moved no faster than a walk. No matter where they went, there was only another dead end.

Everything in sight was a ship, but their fuel had run out long ago. It had been sold in the market or burned for heating. So the people being chased had no way to escape. Not without outside help.

Yes. It was all meaningless struggle. In the end, the heat of the nukes would boil the entire bay.

[How about we dock, even for a moment? We can't save everyone, but at least a few...]

The radio came from the driver's seat. Even in the rush, the voice was subdued.

"We can't stop!"

The whole area was pandemonium, so Gyeoul shouted. Boom-boom-boom-boom! When he pressed the button trigger, the heavy machine gun shuddered under his hands. Three trails approaching the speedboat underwater scattered away from the impact zone.

Gyeoul aimed in a new direction next. Boom-boom-boom! A slashing diagonal burst cut through two layers of waves. Warning shots punched into the water at an angle. Two more of them, circling from the front toward the flank, changed course. While they slowed to do it, the accelerating speedboat broke through between the disrupted trails.

'If we lose speed, we'll be in trouble. We'll be in danger right away.'

Moving fast was enough to draw their attention. Add in the roar of the engine, and to monsters that communicated through sound waves and used them to identify targets, nothing could be more conspicuous. These things could detect even the sound of oars from a rubber boat more than a hundred meters away.

More and more of them were targeting the boat.

If this had been a straight run, they would have shaken them off long ago. While Gyeoul's side kept bending around obstacles, the sea monsters under the waves always took the optimal pursuit route. Their instantaneous top speed approached thirty knots. That was why they only burst out from the most threatening angles.

On top of that, they were learning fast.

Every time they experienced heavy machine gun fire, Gyeoul could see their evasion radius shrinking. Boom-boom-boom-boom! Clack. In the two seconds it took Gyeoul to empty the remaining ammunition, knock away the empty ammo box, and fit a full fifty-round box onto the mount, three streaks of white foam slipped past the falling bullets and rushed in.

They would be too close by the time he finished reloading.

Gyeoul stopped halfway through pulling out the linked ammunition. Ting. Instead, he pulled the pin from a grenade. Accounting for the delay fuse, he threw it with all his strength. Even on a deck that bounced every moment, it was an accurate 「Throwing」.

Boom! Rotten seawater shot high into the air. But the force of the underwater explosion had focused vertically, and the actual blast radius was far smaller than it would have been in air.

Even so, the Melville Rays were stunned. Because of the blast. To creatures that picked up sound waves so sensitively, the roar of a grenade exploding must have been no different from a flashbang going off in front of human eyes.

Splaash! One of them, briefly disoriented, surged up in the wrong place. Its streamlined body arced through the air. That murky sheen. In the dim light, its swollen, warped limbs looked closer to those of a cephalopod. Gyeoul quickly fired his rifle. Dudududuk!

Keeeeee, ooooooh.

Only one had been hit, but the scream came back as a chorus. High and low echoes. The bumpy skin jutting out across its entire body like uvulas was, in fact, a transformed vocal organ. Splash! It reentered the water without a fatal wound, yet moved away at a right angle from the boat's course.

Even at that moment, new waves were closing in. Whenever the fog rippled and the waves heaved, he could see them drawing closer by the second. Their numbers kept increasing.

At least it was fortunate they could not dive very deep because of their warped buoyancy balance.

Gyeoul used the opening to pull out the linked belt with a rattle, lay it into the chamber, and close the cover. Clack-clack! When he pulled the charging handle twice in quick succession, a piece of steel link popped out through the ejection port. His aim had already been set before the loading was even finished. Boom-boom-boom! Boom-boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! The ten rounds he fired in bursts punched through the water exactly one span in front of their heads. Three of them grazed by a hair.

'Not yet. I can't score a hit yet.'

The sea monsters were gradually growing bolder because they had learned, through repeated gunfire, that they had not been hit.

But if he actually hit them, they would learn how much machine gun rounds weakened after entering water. Though more threatening than rifle fire, they were not something to fear. The moment that realization spread through the swarm of Melville Rays, Gyeoul would lose one means of keeping them in check.

So the machine gun rounds had to remain an unknown fear to them.

He had to miss on purpose while firing close enough to nearly hit. Anyone but Gyeoul would have failed at that trick long ago.

Of course, there was still every chance they would learn from another direction.

Kaboom! Boom-boom-boom!

After a flash swept past, heavy cannon fire chased the light. Judging by the interval, the distance was 1,600 meters at two o'clock. It was the sound of military weapons of various calibers spraying rounds like mad. Chinese troops? Or a warship from another country? The only thing to hope for was low accuracy. Against monsters, they had no choice but to look and shoot. How accurately could panicked soldiers fire?

Just a little longer. They only needed to avoid scoring hits for a bit more...

[Damn it! The way is blocked!]

Joanna's scream was mixed with rage and despair. When he looked back, she was wrenching the wheel with everything she had. A life-or-death hard turn to starboard. The speedboat changed direction sharply. For an instant, the boat rose almost vertical, and the machine gun belt pulled from the ammo box by inertia danced in midair.

What they barely avoided was the scene of a massive chain collision. Ships ranging from dozens of meters at the small end to hundreds at the large end were crashing into each other again and again, countless vessels sinking across kilometers of water.

As all kinds of hulls sucked in water, large and small whirlpools formed. People in faded life vests, or clinging to floating debris, drifted across the bubbling sea. Their numbers fell quickly because of the things dragging them under with their teeth from below.

After gathering the ammunition, Gyeoul pointed with a broad gesture.

"That way! Go over the deck!"

He was pointing at a half-sunken cargo ship. Half the deck was submerged diagonally under the black water, and it looked like something the speedboat could climb at full speed.

[Jesus! I can't believe we're actually doing this!]

Joanna spat the words through gritted teeth, but she turned the wheel again. For now, they were moving away to secure the distance they needed to accelerate. After drawing a wide circle, the speedboat began racing toward the cargo ship. Weeeeeeng. The twin engines roared as they pushed output to the limit. Monsters once again approached the hull, which slapped and bounced over the water, coming from the left and right sides of their route.

"Don't dodge!"

They had to keep running straight. At the same time Gyeoul threw a grenade, he poured suppressive fire in the opposite direction. Dozens of casings spilled out with metallic clinks. Kaboom! The explosion was close. Water shot up from the grenade and fell like rain. But the deck had already been soaked long before that. Gyeoul wiped away water and sweat at once.

[Impact incoming! Everyone brace!]

No matter how slanted the deck was, the shock when they rode up could not be small. Screeeeech, ddddddd. Savage sparks flew from the friction between steel and aluminum alloy. It probably would not catch fire, but it would not matter even if it did. They were going back into the water anyway.

Even amid the violent shaking, the heavy machine gun Gyeoul held maintained a steady aim. His target was the railing at the end of the deck. He had to cut it apart before the speedboat's hull reached it. Boom-boom-boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom! Every time the heavy rounds tore through, the railing snapped away piece by piece. But it could not be perfect. Sharp cross sections of the railing's support shafts remained even after the railing was cut. They were right where the speedboat's bottom would pass.

Clack! A hollow metallic sound rang from the heavy machine gun's chamber.

It was too late to reload.

The sound of the boat scraping was so high and sharp that even Gyeoul found it painful.

The sound did not last long. The sharp cross sections must have been crushed by the mass of the hull.

But the braking force when they caught with a thunk turned the speedboat sideways.

The speedboat climbed the slope and crossed the peak sideways, then, slowed by the ascent, began sliding down the tilted cargo ship's outer wall. Mutants came chasing after it. The former crew of the sinking ship, no longer human, leaped over the railings one after another.

Duduk! Dudududuk! Gyeoul left the heavy machine gun unloaded for now and fired his rifle. He killed only the ones that might reach them before the speedboat floated again. Kweeek! Kyaaaak! Corpses with holes punched through their heads rolled and tumbled, some of them even pulling ahead of the boat.

After clearing the rear, Gyeoul aimed his grenade launcher at the approaching sea. Sea monsters expecting the speedboat to come over were circling below. Clever things. Maybe they were the ones truly closer to orcas. Thump! Thump-thump-thump! He fired every remaining round in the grenade launcher. Two were incendiary grenades, useless underwater, but the rest were high-explosive rounds packed full of charge.

The roar of explosions rising in a line paralyzed the monsters' 「Search」 pattern.

At last, the gliding scrape of metal against metal ended. Beneath his feet, he felt the sea roll.

[Water is entering the cabin!]

The scream came through the receiver, and Gyeoul answered at once.

"Tucker! Handle that much from the cabin! You have a console there too! And Anne! Get us out of here! There are monsters everywhere around us! Before these things come to their senses, hurry!"

The flooding was probably not serious. Gyeoul's basis for that judgment was again 「Survival Instinct」. There was no fatal warning yet. It should be at a level the automated drainage system could handle.

While the boat recovered speed, Gyeoul threw another grenade and changed the heavy machine gun's ammo box. Boom! The aftershock of the underwater explosion rang out.

Joanna called Gyeoul.

[I'm going to follow that wake from here. Is that okay?!]

Wake? Gyeoul scanned ahead with a wide field of view and understood what she meant.

"That's fine! I'll handle keeping the Melv... the sea monsters away!"

In his urgency, he had almost slipped.

The wake Joanna meant was a huge fan-shaped stretch of churning water. It was the aftermath of a ship on a completely different scale passing through. The parted water collided and collided, lingering for a long time. No wonder torpedoes had been developed specifically to track this. A ship as large as an aircraft carrier could apparently be tracked even a day later.

The white waves visible now were traces left by an enormous ship, bigger than an aircraft carrier.

The water was full of smashed debris. It had torn through everything with tremendous force and mass.

In other words, the path ahead should be like a straight highway.

The problem was the wake itself. It was not easy to spot linear foam among such violent currents. Joanna was worried she would have trouble detecting approaching Melville Rays.

Gyeoul reloaded the grenade launcher. He had two grenades left now.

The instant he finished loading the grenades, his nerves bristled. As he dropped flat, a gray silhouette burst out of the water and passed over his back. The hand it stretched out almost touched Gyeoul's shoulder.

Tak-tak, tadadadak! Toward the sound of teeth clacking, Gyeoul aimed and fired the grenade launcher without even looking. Thump! The short, blunt high-explosive round burst between the monster's tail-like legs.

Guaaaa, kyaaaaa, bubble-bubble.

A many-voiced scream plunged into the water. The nearby current stained an even deeper darkness. Under bright light, it would look dark red. Gyeoul hoped something had gone wrong with its propulsion.

More attacks followed. The sensory correction, quiet until then, only began surging sharply the moment a monster burst out of the water. The margin he had to dodge was barely more than a second. He only had a few chances to aim for weak points where water had not pooled beneath the skin.

To the ones that showed only their swollen eyes above the water, Gyeoul outside the cabin was the priority target.

'Is there no way to slam them onto the deck?'

Except for their tough skin and muscle, a Melville Ray out of water was worse than a ghoul. Since these things knew that too, they did not come head-on.

If he tried to grab and throw them by hand, their slick skin was the problem. If he drove in a knife and twisted, he worried their heavy inertia might drag him along. In the end, was buying time like this the best option? After being drenched in fishy water as the creatures shot past, Gyeoul checked the time.

There was still room. Until the dim light of dawn reached its darkest point.

A giant bridge passed overhead. It was the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland. Even though both ends had been cut off long ago, he saw mutants jumping down from beneath the bridge, somehow having climbed up there. Had Grumble thrown them? But they did not become a real threat.

Even if they fell onto a ship with a wide deck, their chances of surviving were low. They would be lucky to break only their legs. Even ordinary unarmed sailors would not go down without a fight. That was why countless ships were still escaping, speeding and colliding like mad.

Among them were plenty of people as quick-witted as Joanna, so 「Crisis Detection」 continued without pause. Joanna's evasive maneuvers relied half on radar and half on Gyeoul. It was hard to count how many times they had come close to colliding.

The special mutants' attacks were dispersed that much.

Not that it was anything to celebrate.

Even in that unwelcome breathing room, Gyeoul did not lower his guard.

The speedboat's crossing carried them past Treasure Island, where seven nuclear ballistic missiles had been launched, and continued between Alcatraz, infamous for its prison, and Angel Island.

Joanna sighed with sorrow.

[Ah... Fort McDowell has fallen!]

The U.S. base on Angel Island was burning. Black smoke billowed from the historic garrison, which had been closed half a century ago and then reactivated after the apocalypse began.

The intermittent gunfire coming from scattered directions meant the base's defense line had completely collapsed. As far as Gyeoul knew, a division was stationed on the island. The 10th Mountain Division. They were the ones preparing to retake the San Francisco metropolitan area someday.

How many had withdrawn alive?

From this position, a ridge blocked it from view, but the old immigration station at the island's northern end could not have survived intact either. Nor the submarines from lost countries docked there. Nor their crews.

The speedboat had just glanced past Angel Island and finally caught up to the stern of the giant cargo ship.

An enormous explosion sounded from the cargo ship's bow.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#physical book

I have already received the book myself, but I am told the supply will reach bookstores in early April. It looks like you will have to wait a little longer.

#Q&A

Q. Pare-nim: @Will the full story of this mission be made public? In a way, this is an operation to wipe out an evil secret organization.

A. If I answer, it would be a spoiler. You can figure it out if you think from the U.S. government's perspective, though. Please look forward to what will be serialized.

Q. svjk-nim: @Thanks for the chapter! In the previous mention of Melville Rays, you said they can reach that speed because they are not swimming... Since mutants keep evolving even through such bizarre movement methods, will there be more mutations that occur later?? And now I suddenly got curious about the ecosystem. For example, what is the relationship between mutants and apex predators like lions or orcas?? If they affect fish catches, that seems like it could become an important variable too.

A. Special mutants will continue to appear. Also, not every special mutant will be as powerful as Grumble, Trickster, or Melville Ray. They are called special mutants because they have special functions, literally speaking.

No matter how much Melville Rays increase, they will not affect the amount of fish caught compared to the scale of fishing operations. In practice, though, catches will decrease. Maritime fishing has become more dangerous, after all.

Q. BlueCrystal-nim: @Author, I searched and only saw ebooks, not physical books. Has it not been released yet?

That is correct. As I said above, bookstore supply has not happened yet.

Q. Surui-nim: @Author, I was deeply impressed by your novel, so I became interested in this kind of genre. I looked at the dystopia genre category and bought 1984 and Brave New World to read, and while they were interesting, they were not the genre I had in mind. T_T Are there any books that inspired you when writing?

A. Not really. The basic inspiration came to me when I encountered the concept of TOM.

Q. OneChance-nim: @I am always amazed by your careful research. This special mutant has a crazy jaw! To think it can bite into hull alloy, wow. I guess the setting was made because it has to threaten boats, but even then, how can a living creature's teeth even scratch steel? Is this also thanks to the author's childlike innocence?

A. If the hull material had been steel, it would have been impossible. The hull material of the 47FT MLB is aluminum.

That said, it is true that the Melville Ray's bite force is monstrous.

Footnotes:

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