Tuesday rolled around again.
"Hello? Oh, Yoonseung-ah, it's me..."
I picked up my phone and continued the conversation with a familiar acquaintance.
The past few days had been utterly peaceful. Although the visit from that mysterious researcher had left me with an inexplicable sense of unease for a while, nothing in particular had changed in my daily life since then.
Even after looking into that person's father, I couldn't find anything particularly useful.
Yet in the midst of this uneventful routine, even the few plans I had scheduled ended up falling through.
Originally, I had arranged lessons with Jung Haeseong twice a week—once on the weekend and once on whichever weekday suited him.
Hunter Kim Giryeo, I apologize, but would it be possible to postpone this week's weekday session until the weekend?
Yes.
It doesn't really matter, but why all of a sudden?
Actually, a few days ago, my mother's caregiver suddenly quit for personal reasons. So this week, I'll be busy hiring someone new and personally handling the transition.
Well...
As you can see, that was the reason.
So I decided to take advantage of this rare stretch of free time.
At long last, I was going to try a cultural activity I'd been curious about for quite a while.
"Yoonseung-ah, sorry for asking so suddenly, but if you have some time, could you help me with something?"
Of course, I'd always been interested in alien cultures, even before I reincarnated.
But with all the talk about recovering my strength and everything else going on, I'd honestly been so caught up in one thing after another that I'd barely had a chance to enjoy myself properly.
So this time, I decided to visit a place called an aquarium.
Unfortunately, Kim Giryeo's brain contained absolutely no useful information about such outings.
Honestly, I don't even know how to buy the tickets... What if they don't sell them on-site?
To make sure my rare attempt at leisure didn't end in failure, I enlisted the help of a local.
You're going to an aquarium on a weekday?
***
...And that was how I ended up at this aquarium.
"It's so blue."
Small creatures swam in schools through cobalt-blue water.
Along the bottom of the artificial ecosystem, pale pink coral and seashells filled the tank, evoking the atmosphere of the sea. Perhaps because the interior lighting was so dim, even the currents flowing through the water were clearly visible.
The shimmering scales of tropical fish gliding past effortlessly drew the eye.
"Hyung-nim! According to what I looked up, this aquarium holds performances every thirty minutes starting around two in the afternoon. There's a penguin ecology presentation, a Little Mermaid-themed show, and—ah! Apparently they recently renovated the VR experience zone too—"
But I hadn't meant to ask for this much help...
All I'd wanted was to learn how to book the tickets properly so I wouldn't miss out on any discounts.
Yet the moment Ahn Yoonseung heard that I wasn't familiar with outings like this, he was so shocked that he immediately volunteered to be my guide.
And that wasn't all.
He had even prepared three full A4 pages outlining our itinerary.
If we followed his plan and watched every performance, the whole thing would take an astonishing three hours and forty-five minutes.
No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't help feeling a little guilty about wasting the valuable time of an A-rank hunter like this.
"But Yoonseung... didn't you have a raid scheduled for today?"
I cautiously asked the local who had rushed over so enthusiastically.
Without even pausing for breath, the hunter answered.
"Ah, don't worry about that! The moment I heard you were having trouble, I took the day off!"
A day off?
I'd never really taken proper vacations in my previous life, so I wasn't entirely sure how this worked...
But judging from the bright expression on his face, I supposed it was fine.
"Um, all right. Thanks."
Well then.
From here on out, I might as well enjoy myself without hesitation.
And so, under Yoonseung's guidance, my pleasant tour began.
First, we visited tanks filled with the tropical fish commonly seen in Earth's media.
Next, we walked through an underwater tunnel into the shark exhibit.
After that came creatures like starfish clinging to the seafloor.
And finally, we arrived before the glass wall of the enormous main tank.
"Wow~ Jellyfish!"
As you might have guessed from my earlier remarks, mammals hadn't exactly been a dominant group of organisms on my home planet, Alphauri.
There weren't many varieties of them, either.
Simply put, mammals felt about as distant to me as those fish probably did to humans.
"So an aquarium really is a place where animals are kept alive and put on display for people to watch."
"Well... yes!"
Then what kind of creature had the Alphaurians evolved from?
The answer was right there in front of me, drifting inside the tank.
"My ancestors..."
Flutter.
Flutter.
I watched the jellyfish swaying within the massive aquarium and found myself unexpectedly overcome by a strange sense of sentimentality.
A marine creature with a gelatinous body.
That's right.
If you traced our lineage far enough back, we had, in fact, originated from something resembling the phylum Cnidaria...
No matter how I look at them, they look far too much like our ancestors.
Of course, there were many differences between the taxonomic systems of Earth and Alphauri, so technically speaking, cephalopods such as octopuses might have been a closer comparison.
Furthermore, modern Alphaurians had undergone so many bodily modifications that much of our anatomy could no longer be called naturally occurring.
Which meant this comparison might ultimately be meaningless.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, our ancestors were probably something like jellyfish or octopuses.
I thought this as I gazed into the tanks filled with primitive creatures.
But how could Earthlings be so cold-blooded?
Keeping living creatures confined for observation wasn't unheard of on my home planet.
However, that was something scholars like me did for research.
Openly displaying living beings as part of a public entertainment facility like this was almost unheard of.
Keeping marine creatures in such cramped spaces must carry a considerable risk of psychological disorders.
Whoosh.
And yet entire families are standing here holding hands and watching them...?
I turned my head and saw a cheerful little girl standing in front of the beluga whale tank.
Her family was smiling brightly as well, taking pictures of their child.
To most people, it was probably a heartwarming sight.
To a certain tentacled creature, however, it was mildly terrifying.
Zoos and aquariums were strange customs from an Alphaurian perspective.
"Earthlings really are frightening aliens."
Still.
This was exactly the kind of sightseeing I'd wanted to experience.
Maple-colored fish.
Convict blennies.
Water horses.
And reptiles covered in neat rows of bumpy scales.
To a stranger who had crossed the vast reaches of the universe, every creature I encountered here seemed almost fantastical.
It was fascinating.
I'd fled my home for reasons I would rather not remember, but my reincarnation had ultimately allowed me to witness sights like these.
And that filled me with a fresh sense of wonder.
What a magnificent planet.
Perhaps because of my innate nature as a scholar, my feelings gradually began to change.
It really would be a shame to die without learning everything I can about a place like this.
Unlike before, when I hadn't cared whether I lived or died, I'd developed a slight attachment to life.
Before I died, I wanted to explore at least a little more of this planet called Earth.
I wondered whether I'd be able to fulfill all my wishes in this lifetime.
"By the way, thanks for making time for me today."
After thinking about it for a while, I spoke to Yoonseung.
"Like I said on the phone, I've never been somewhere like this before in my life."
"You said you'd never been even once."
"Yeah. Even with the ticketing... I had no idea what I was supposed to do on my own."
Ahn Yoonseung burst out laughing.
"For some reason, I'm always surprised whenever you say there's something you can't do."
"Why?"
"Well, because you're always so amazing! It just feels like you'd be good at everything."
"..."
"Anyway, I'm personally really happy I got the chance to help you like this. So don't worry about me!"
The kind Earthling smiled brightly and pointed us onward.
"Shall we keep going, then? It looks like the next exhibit is prairie dogs!"
We moved on toward the habitat of another animal.
"But I've wondered this ever since I was a kid. Why are there prairie dogs in an aquarium?"
"What do they have to do with water...?"
Click.
While Ahn Yoonseung pulled out his phone to take a picture of the animal in front of him, I briefly turned my head and scanned our surroundings.
Somehow, there were far fewer visitors here than I'd expected.
At this point, it almost feels like we have the whole place to ourselves.
Thanks to that, both the famous Ahn Yoonseung and I were able to spend a peaceful day without any disturbances.
Considering how tense things had been the day before, the result was almost anticlimactic.
The place was so deserted that, around the prairie dog enclosure, it felt as though no one else was there besides us.
"Hmm?"
But at that moment, I sensed someone's presence approaching from the distant underwater tunnel.
Awakened...
More precisely, I sensed the mana contained within the bodies of Awakened individuals.
That alone wasn't particularly strange.
Today wasn't a holiday or anything—just an ordinary weekday.
That meant a large portion of the visitors were probably hunters, whose schedules allowed them to adjust their working hours more freely.
"Hmm."
However, one thing did stand out.
The people approaching us appeared to be foreigners.
And on closer inspection, their ranks were fairly high as well.
B-rank and A-rank.
There really were a surprising number of Awakened people gathered inside a single aquarium.
At this rate, even if a dungeon break suddenly occurred, there probably wouldn't be much to worry about.
"Yoonseung-ah, by the way, aren't you getting a little hungry?"
"Oh, don't tell me you skipped lunch before coming here?"
"I ate, but I'm getting a little hungry again."
"Whoa! Yes! Then I'll take you straight to the dining area! Fortunately, there's an ocean-themed café inside..."
"An ocean-themed café?"
Seriously.
Why did this damn planet have so many cafés?
I turned toward Yoonseung and continued talking as I followed his lead.
As the saying went, even sightseeing was better on a full stomach.
I figured I ought to replenish my energy before continuing the aquarium tour.
"Hmm."
But after walking for a few seconds, my steps gradually slowed.
"Ahn Yoonseung."
"Yes?"
"I just thought of something."
"Yes, yes."
"Here... I mean, in Korea, using mind control or brainwashing skills on people is considered a serious crime, right?"
It was a rather abrupt question.
After all, until just a moment ago, Yoonseung had been cheerfully talking about peaceful nonsense like how the drink stands provided dolphin-shaped straws.
"I understand that it's a serious crime, but how do you catch someone who uses a skill like that?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"I mean, how do you prove who the culprit is?"
"I'm not sure, but I think I saw something about it on the news once... Was it in England? I think they handled it somehow using Justitia or something like that."
"Justitia?"
"It's the name of a dungeon item."
Ahn Yoonseung folded the aquarium guide he'd been holding and came to a stop.
Then he looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"But why are you suddenly asking that, Hyung-nim?"
"Why am I asking?"
Well.
"I didn't exactly want to bring it up out of nowhere either."
"Yes?"
"But those people with mental-type skills have been following us for a while now."
As I spoke, I casually reached for my item box.
"I'm starting to get a bad feeling."
As far as Kim Giryeo could tell, the two Awakened individuals who vaguely appeared to be Hispanic had been persistently following them ever since the underwater tunnel where he'd first sensed their mana.
It would have been nice if they were simply curious about a famous Hunter and wanted an autograph.
Unfortunately, their Awakening levels placed them firmly within the upper ranks of the pyramid.
I don't think people like that would stalk someone just to get an autograph.
I assessed the situation and quietly passed the information along to the defense-type Hunter beside me, keeping my voice as low as possible.
"Ahn Yoonseung, listen carefully from now on. If you've got your item box with you, keep your equipment ready at your fingertips."
And then—
"If things go wrong, use [Shield of Protection] on that tunnel over there..."
It happened in an instant.
By the time we reached the enormous central aquarium, towering eight meters high, the sound we'd been dreading finally rang out behind us.
Clank!
Clank, clank!
Someone who had been following us noticed the change in our behavior and made the first move.
"Forget what I just said. Hold your breath and run!"
And they attacked in a way Yoonseung couldn't stop.