Alan Pioneer News
Alan snickers as he watches the screen. One showing a video that was quickly posted and edited of the very first run-in between the Pioneer of Oceana and a local from Oceana.
The video itself has completely blown up on the internet all over the Alliance, making it harder for someone not to know about it at this point.
“How are you breathing down here?!” Alan mimics before laughing.
Then Rodrick laughs as well as he plays a recording of Aqua’s voice saying, “By breathing?”
Audience laughter then plays out through sound effects all across the studio.
“This is great!” Alan exclaims while slapping his hand on the counter in front of him. “And it’s even better since it’s obvious this native is jumping to conclusions about her that couldn’t be further from the truth!”
“He’s literally filling in her backstory for her at this point,” Rodrick says with a shake of his head. “His expressions are so easy to read.”
“So are Aqua’s though,” Alan adds as he zooms in on Aqua’s face, showing her lazy confusion that is absolutely adorable to everyone watching. Like she has no idea what’s going on but is just gonna go with it anyway. “She used to make fewer expressions making it harder to read her, but now she’s starting to loosen up. And the expressions she’s starting to show are adorable in every way possible.”
“Still, I’ve heard there’s a subset of her fans that are on the warpath against this native,” Rodrick mentions, making Alan glance at him before nodding and pressing a button. Making the screen switch.
“Yeah, but I can understand them a little,” Alan says as the screen changes to show Aqua when she was holding the native in a princess carry. “Some of her fans are starting to think of her as an idol and a model. Especially now that a few of her photoshoots and ads are starting to release. So they’re seething at the idea of a man being that close to her.”
“Unfortunately, that’s just how idol society is,” Rodrick gravely says with a shake of his head. “Most of her fans aren’t idol style fans, but this subset is certainly burning their own warpath.”
Alan nods his head at that before saying, “Let’s hope he gives our little Aqua some good intel about Oceana at least. To make up for this fire he’s lit by accident.”
“Agreed,” Rodrick declares.

Aqua
This guy really does like filling in my own background for me. It’s honestly kind of amusing in a way.
He seems to think I’m from some sort of secret clan or something. All because I’m able to breathe and talk underwater. Which shouldn’t be possible in his eyes for a human even with the System.
After all, every Bloodlineless human has the same set of traits they can pull from when getting a new trait. Just with the traits they actually get being determined by the human’s surroundings, along with a strong random factor to it.
But the very first trait every Bloodlineless human gets is the exact same.
Born Survivor.
It’s a trait that gives humans a boost of stamina, speed, and even strength when their life is about to be taken from them. Kind of like adrenaline, but System enhanced.
So in the eyes of these natives, none of whom have reached level twenty-five to get a second trait, even the idea of a trait that could make someone able to breathe underwater isn’t possible. Since Born Survivor is their only experience with traits.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
And skills don’t alter the biology of the holder of the skill. So they can’t make someone breathe underwater.
With that in mind, it makes sense that he’d assume I had some sort of special powers unrelated to the System.
Although…
“How are you holding up? Do you need any help finding a new home? Maybe an introduction?” Jaleth asks one question after another, showing way too much pity and sympathy over a fake background he made up in his own head. Genuinely making me wonder how there could be such a nice guy at the top of the rankings. “Oh, right. If you’re new to the underwater cities, maybe I could help show you around a bit? Get you signed up with the Hunter’s Guild at least!”
This is almost making me feel bad for thinking about taking, I mean borrowing, his armor.
Almost.
I didn’t take it since it’s useless for me and would clearly be too big in most places and way too tight in the chest.
And since I didn’t ‘borrow’ it, I have nothing to feel bad about.
I give a firm nod of my head at that thought, coincidentally making Jaleth assume I meant his question as he exclaims, “Great! Come with me and I’ll bring you to the closest Deep City! Which also happens to be the Hunter’s City of this ocean!”
Oops. I just accidentally said I’d go with him, didn’t I?
Then again, a guide could be useful.
So it doesn’t hurt.
And with that in mind, I begin to follow him through the ocean. Feeling rather surprised at the lack of monsters as we do so.
From what I saw at the entrances of the caves, where I was attacked both times, I kind of assumed the deep ocean would be filled to the brim with monsters. But we’ve only run into a few small groups of monsters out here.
Although said monsters are… stronger than those in the caves.
Strong enough we need to hide from them and aren’t even capable of fighting them.
Still, this is a pretty good sign at least. It means the ocean isn’t quite as dangerous as I thought.
Even if it is, indeed, still very dangerous.
I also feel a little surprised by how little he talks now that we’re on the move. Since he was talking nonstop earlier. Seemed a little flustered too for some reason.
On another note, I can’t help but notice quite a few oddities as we swim through the ocean. Like large floating objects in the water with monsters swimming in and out of them.
Which are… strange.
It doesn’t take me long to figure out what they are though. Not when I sense the mana instability in the area.
Oh. So these are dungeons that broke after no one was able to clear them in time.
Certainly explains why there’s a blue castle floating in the water without actually sinking. And why there’s a large mountain floating in the water.
Some really strange things down here.
The chat seems to agree.
[It’s always so bizarre to see broken dungeons down underwater…]
[They’ve just become nests for fish monsters at this point.]
[Do you think there might be something like the snake in the castle? Something big that decided to make the castle its home?]
That’s a scary thought.
“I’ve formed a group of the top ranked hunters to protect the cities and deal with these strange objects that have appeared across the ocean after the System’s arrival, but we haven’t been able to figure much out about them yet,” Jaleth says as we swim, clearly referring to the broken dungeons. “We’ve decided to call them Anomalies and have started assigning names to each of the Anomalies separately.”
Anomalies? I guess they could be considered anomalies, technically.
On another note, it looks like they haven’t figured out what dungeons are yet.
“You should look for glowing portals if you’re searching for their source,” I tell him, deciding to help this world out a bit since I’m living here from now on. “They look like rifts in reality and have a lot of mana centered around them.”
The man who looks to be a little bit older than me – probably mid to late twenties – looks surprised for a moment before nodding his head in understanding. No doubt assuming I found these in the deepsea or something judging by that rather imaginary backstory he gave me.
After that we continue swimming past the broken dungeons, going upwards and rising in water depth, all the way until we arrive at an underwater city. One located within a large sphere, with some sort of metal making up the bottom half of the sphere and the city itself making up the top half.
There are also dozens of people entering and leaving the city at any moment in time with the ones entering the city often pulling in an aquatic monster of drastically varying species. And every single one of the people there is wearing that same device Jaleth is wearing around his neck. A device I can only assume lets them breathe underwater. Since he hasn’t said anything about it other than pointing at his own when he asked if I had a different version of the device later on. Seemingly trying to confirm that I’m breathing without a device of some sorts.
Still. This is rather impressive for a new world initialized into the System.
The city is still very much behind even the backwater world I was living on, but considering that this world was initialized just a few days before I was brought here, it’s very impressive.
Jaleth turns around and swims backwards as he spreads his arms and says, “Welcome to Aeltral! The Hunter City of the Fortal Ocean!”