["You're an idiot…"]
["Shut up, you damn vixen. If you had just crossed obediently, this wouldn't have happened."]
["Humph."]
In the end, I had to cross the damn cable to get the vixen.
["Alright, that's your friend, right? I'm carrying her over, and then you two come after. I've already wasted too much time."]
["W-wait, please, help me too…"]
["Huh? And how does that benefit the rat kid?"]
When he asked that, the fragile-looking girl who was originally giving the 'fuck me' eyes to four-eyes went blank. She doesn't seem to understand my question.
["I've been wondering, but what's this 'rat kid' thing you talk about with him, Louise?"]
["Ignore it. It's something like a horrible code between people without the slightest bit of humanity or decency left in their hearts."]
Even though you're one of us, you bitch.
Just as I was about to complain, the fragile girl, who seems to have understood something, throws herself at me.
["I… I can be useful. I'm a genius, I can do many things."]
["A genius? Then why don't you calculate the time it'll take for you to starve to death for not moving your little ass instead of crying to me…"]
["SNIFF… 3 days… 7 hours… 30 minutes… 15 seconds… UWEEEEEE."]
What the fuck?
[[OOOOOH, you made her cry!]]
Daughters of…
["AAAAAA, fine, I just have to carry you, right? We're leaving."]
["So you are weak to crying girls after all… Unexpected."]
["Shut up, you lowlife. I'll remember this."]
And so began my odyssey.
First transport…
["Pi is equal to 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489…"]
How in the world does she remember so many digits of damn pi…? Maybe she really is a genius.
["Hey brat, we're here, so get off."]
["5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540…"]
For fuck's sake… Since there's no other way, I pat the head of the girl who is clinging to me as if there's no tomorrow.
["Look, we're here, everything's fine, so calm down, okay?"]
It took a while of patting for her to finally let go and stand up.
["Cough cough. Your help is appreciated. As expected from someone with your physical specifications; someone with my specifications wouldn't have been able to handle the journey, okay? It's not that I was scared or anything, you understand?"]
I don't give a damn.
Second transport…
["Sorry, sorry, sorry, shit, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, fuck, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry damn it, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, you bastard son of a bitch, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, don't let me go please I'm really sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…"]
This one's broken… Is she insulting me between apologies?
["Hey, we're here. Let go of me already, damn it."]
["LAAAAAAAAAND, WAAAAAAAAAAH, BEAUTIFUL LAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!"]
It's the damn roof of a house… To hell with it.
I leave the hysterical girl with the genius girl.
Third transport…
["Aren't you stronger than you look?"]
["Shut up… I need a break before the next trip…"]
["Then I'm going first. Good luck."]
While I'm resting, one of the vixen's friends starts crossing the rope very easily. What's up with that one? She seemed like the motherly type, not the athletic type. She even had those huge boobs.
The genius girl is flat, so that was a disappointment. The other friend's boobs were very nice; it was a feast. But those boobs… I really wanted to carry those boobs…
Now that I remember, only her other friend seemed to have a problem. Was I blinded by boobs?
["Too bad for you. Despite her appearance, Carmelia is a gymnast. You'll have to wipe your drool and settle for Amelia's boobs."]
["I can see that without you telling me, damn it…"]
---------
(Note: The following monster profile is identical to the one provided in a previous chapter and has been reproduced here for consistency.)
JOURNAL ENTRY NO: 239
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Somnalis unda
REGIONAL ALIASES:
Coasts of Venezuela: El Ronquido Húmedo (The Wet Snore)
Norse Folklore: Sjølaken (The Sea-Sheet)
Asian Sailors: The Tongue of Dead Water
NICKNAME (ASTRAD): The Reverse Electric Blanket
📊 THREAT ASSESSMENT
CLASSIFICATION: TERRITORIALIS / ANOMALY
A strange hybrid. It's Territorial, but its 'territory' isn't a place; it's its nap. Its aggression is based entirely on protecting its state of rest. And it's an Anomaly because its method of 'defense' is a paranormal ability that violates thermodynamics and turns you off like a switch.
DANGER LEVEL: RED (2 stars)
A Red rating not because it's a war machine, but because it's a death trap with 100% lethality if you trigger it. It can't be fought. You can't shoot the cold or stab a shadow. It's an instant death zone. The 2 stars are because, if you have the knowledge, you can avoid it or neutralize it with cheap tricks. If you don't, it's a 5-star threat with your name written on a tombstone.
AGGRESSIVENESS LEVEL: REACTIVE
The laziest and yet most lethal creature in the bestiary. It's a hibernating bear with a weapon of mass destruction tied to its alarm clock. As long as you don't interrupt its sleep, you could use it as a mattress. If you wake it up, congratulations, you've just pressed your own self-destruct button.
🧬 COMBAT FILE (TL;DR)
TYPE: Beast / Spectral
AFFINITY: Water / Shadow (Entropy)
🎯 PRIMARY WEAKNESSES:
Intense and sustained light (forces it to retreat), Rhythmic and constant vibrations (keeps it docile), Absolute silence.
📌 KEY STRENGTHS:
Instantaneous vital heat drain, Perfect camouflage in water and shadows, Semi-intangible body.
📚 ORIGINS AND COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY
Norse Folklore: Compared to marine Draugr, the ghosts of the drowned, but without the interest in getting up and walking. This one prefers to just float.
Global Coastal Mythology: It's the embodiment of the "black tide" or "dead waters," areas in the sea that inexplicably rob solitary fishermen of their strength and heat, leaving them to die of hypothermia in the middle of the tropics.
Cryptozoology: Armchair theorists describe it as "if a squid and a shadow had an illegitimate and profoundly depressed child."
Astrad's Analysis: People blame cold currents or swamp gases. Sure. I suppose those "currents" also sing opera creepily and leave eyeless corpses at the port.
📝 DETAILED ANALYSIS
PHYSICAL AND SENSORY DESCRIPTION:
It manifests as a dark, elongated, and amorphous mass, with a texture that seems both liquid and shadowy. Its outline is undefined, constantly undulating like a silk cloth in deep water. It can vary drastically in size, from that of an arm to several meters long, adapting to the space it occupies. It has no visible features but can emit a hypnotic and distorted song, similar to a whale's echo put through a broken blender. Its proximity is preceded by a sharp drop in temperature and a metallic smell, like ozone or diluted blood.
BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY:
It's an ambush predator in its most passive form. It can remain in a state of near-total hibernation for months or even decades, floating motionless in bodies of stagnant water, flooded sewers, or very dark and damp corners. It's blind and detects not by sight, but by vibrations. Footsteps, voices, a boat engine, or any acoustic disturbance in its radius "wakes" it. Once active, it instantly drains the heat and bioelectric energy from the nearest source of disturbance, killing its victim with a massive hypothermic shock before returning to its latent state.
☣️ PROTOCOLS
RECOMMENDED ENCOUNTER PROTOCOL:
DO: Move in absolute silence in areas of dark, stagnant water. Use powerful lights to scan the water before crossing. If detected, use a rhythmic and constant sound source (a metronome, repetitive music) to keep it docile while evacuating the area.
DON'T: Make unnecessary noise near suspicious waters. Start a boat engine without checking first. Assume a shadow in the water is just a shadow.
FIELD REPORT (Excerpt from a La Guaira Coast Guard report, Pre-Apocalypse):
"The officer described it as a black sheet under the boat. It didn't move until they started the engine to return. The sailor next to the engine, a young man named Carlos, simply collapsed, stiff, as if he'd been switched off. When we pulled him aboard, his skin was pale and his lips were purple, but he hadn't swallowed a drop of water. He was just... frozen. I'd never seen someone die of sleep with their eyes open."
🎤 ASTRAD'S NOTES (THE ONLY SHIT THAT MATTERS):
This asshole is the literal definition of 'woke up on the wrong side of the bed.' Asleep, it doesn't exist. Awake, it steals your life force like your ex who came back 'just to talk.' It's the perfect monster for lazy people: it doesn't hunt, it waits for the delivery to arrive at its door. And you're the delivery.
It's not an enemy; it's an environmental hazard with a very nasty temper. A proximity mine that sings opera. It kills you by accident, like a sofa that decides to swallow people who sit down too hard. It's a damp, murderous blanket that puts you out with a yawn.
Pro tip: don't wake it up. If you hear a weird song coming from a sewer, it's not a mermaid, it's the 'instant death zone' warning. Run towards the light like a cockroach in a kitchen. And if you have to cross a suspicious puddle, do it in silence or blast some reggaeton at full volume. The constant rhythm might save your life, even if it makes you lose the will to live.
----------------
💻 Chat - Rat Kid Network
RK3: [This piece of shit almost sucked out my soul. Under a pier, suddenly, the shadow was swallowing me. And yeah, I almost ended up like a boiled fish… if it weren't for some friends tossing me an explosive little gift into the water. Don't ask, let's just say there was an aquatic fireworks festival.]
RK6: [And how the hell did you get out alive?]
RK8: [Another tall tale from the bar, old man?]
RK3: [Legend my ass. I survived because I don't play on normal mode. Always hardcore, along with my friends who always have fireworks. The difference is that critter doesn't have respawn, and neither do you.]
RK8: [A video just surfaced. Some idiots started the engine of a boat right on top of something similar. You can hear the wet song, everything fogs up and… well, you know how it ends.]
RK6: [LOL, a classic. There are always volunteers for the free butchery...]
RK3: [Well, you know what they say, life is full of problems.]
RK8: [For other people, AHAHAHAHAA]
RK6: [For other people, AHAHAHAHAA]
RK3: [For other people, AHAHAHAHAA]
VixenBigSister: [You guys are horrible… But I'll make a note of that.]