Chapter 315: The Great Whale: A Man-and-Nature Harmony
“…”
Was she under so much stress that she was hallucinating? How had it looked like a whale had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swallowed Gary whole?
Everly stared at the choppy surface of the sea for a while. When she was certain there was no sign of Gary, she took another dive, forcing her stinging eyes open as she searched the water around her.
Gary was nowhere to be found beneath the surface either.
Instead, she found herself looking straight into a black eye encircled by glowing blue rings.
Its owner hovered silently about two meters away. Its enormous streamlined body stretched across the water before her as its fins and tail swayed lazily, watching her with one calm eye.
It looked strikingly similar to an orca, yet was far larger—so massive it rivaled a small boat. Its fins and tail also differed from those of any ordinary whale. The fins along its sides were translucent, fan-shaped appendages reinforced with bony spines, while its equally transparent tail trailed behind it with two graceful ribbons that floated like the tent*cles of a jellyfish.
A creature with features this distinctive was impossible to forget after seeing it even once.
After observing it underwater for a while, Everly’s head began to feel heavy from the lack of oxygen.
She released a string of bubbles with a blub, blub and swam back to the surface. She had only managed two quick breaths when ripples suddenly spread across the water in front of her.
The next moment, with a loud splash, an enormous black platform burst through the surface and appeared before her. Beneath the “platform,” just behind a white eye patch, was a pair of small fish-like eyes ringed with blue.
The great whale had surfaced as well.
Human and whale regarded each other in silence for a moment. Then Everly cautiously swam closer and reached out, gently touching the rounded tip of the whale’s snout.
“Ahh… ahh…”
The great whale let out a soft, whining call. Instead of pulling away, it merely dipped its massive body a little deeper into the water. The movement tilted the tip of its mouth upward even more. Its cool, jelly-like skin gently nudged Everly’s palm, as lightly as a drifting feather.
That familiar ee-ee cry, along with the way it nudged her hand, instantly confirmed her suspicion.
This was the very same great whale she had rescued in the Atlantic.
But this was the Pacific—an entire continent away.
Why was it here?
The question flashed through her mind only briefly before she pushed it aside.
Kicking her legs, Everly swam up alongside the whale and gave its head a few reassuring pats. Seeing that it remained perfectly still, quietly allowing her to pet it without showing the slightest hint of aggression, she silently apologized before reaching out to grip its upper and lower lips, trying to pry them apart just enough to peek inside.
“Woo-ah…”
The great whale was less than cooperative.
Feeling Everly tugging at its mouth, it shook its head from side to side in annoyance, flinging away her rude hands. Then it plunged beneath the surface. In one smooth motion, its head and tail traded places underwater, and its beautiful, crystal-like tail rose high above the sea before slapping down with tremendous force.
Splash!
A towering wall of water crashed over Everly, drenching her from head to toe.
“Pff… Bleh, bleh, bleh!”
She spat out the salty, bitter seawater that had gotten into her mouth and wiped her face clean. Looking up, she saw that the great whale had turned itself around again and surfaced headfirst, quietly watching her with those black eyes encircled by blue rings.
This time, however, it kept a greater distance between them, as though afraid she would swim over and start prying its mouth open again.
“…”
Everly could only sigh in exasperation.
After all, they had been interacting for quite a while now, and Gary still hadn’t come charging at her with a knife, cackling maniacally.
By this point, she was basically certain that what she’d seen earlier hadn’t been a hallucination.
The great whale really had swallowed Gary in a single gulp.
But… did that actually make any sense?
After all, that was Gary.
One of the four greatest cinematic slashers in American film history, the eternal protagonist of the Blood Camp series, the immortal son of an evil god. A monster that troublesome had simply been swallowed whole by a whale… and that was it?
What if he suddenly came back to life inside the whale’s stomach, pulled out his knife, sliced the whale open from the inside, and crawled out of its carcass?
The thought made Everly snap to attention.
“I don’t mean any offense, it’s just… you swallowed a person a moment ago, remember? That person is extremely dangerous. There’s basically no normal way to kill him. I’m worried he’ll come back to life inside your stomach, so I’d like to check.”
As she spoke, she gestured animatedly at the whale, hoping it would somehow understand what she meant.
“Prrrblub…”
The great whale’s only response was to sink lower into the water until only a small section of its back remained above the surface. Beneath the water, it parted its mouth slightly and released a long stream of bubbles.
Everly stared in utter confusion.
What was that supposed to mean? Did blowing bubbles mean Gary had disappeared like the bubbles? Or was the whale trying to tell her its stomach hurt, as if it had eaten something poisonous?
That possibility made her heart skip a beat.
Taking a deep breath, Everly dived beneath the surface and swam underneath the great whale, reaching out to feel its plump white belly.
It was only after getting underneath the whale that she realized how little she knew. Where exactly was a whale’s stomach? Below the chest? A little farther forward? Or farther back?
Left with no other choice, she simply started feeling around at random.
After all, it had swallowed an entire person. Maybe she’d be able to feel Gary’s outline.
Perhaps she was pressing a little too hard.
As she continued probing, the massive body beneath her palm suddenly jolted as if struck by electricity, shuddering violently. At the same time, the great whale opened its mouth and let out a cry underwater unlike anything she had ever heard before.
“Eeee…”
The sound trembled softly, thin and sweet, lingering like strands of syrup. It sounded uncomfortable and aggrieved, plaintive and pitiful all at once.
Then Everly felt something soft coil around her waist. It quickly pulled her away from the whale’s underside and lifted her to the surface. Looking down, she realized it was a tent*cle extending from beneath one of the whale’s fins!
So the events she’d experienced inside the painting really did correspond to reality.
The great whale really did have tent*cles.
Once it had deposited Everly back on the surface, the tent*cle swiftly withdrew. The great whale then turned to face her head-on, looking thoroughly annoyed. It raised its massive head a little higher out of the water, opened its permanently smiling mouth, and—with remarkably poor manners—spat a mouthful of seawater at her.
Pfft!
The ball of seawater wasn’t particularly fast. Everly tilted her head aside and easily dodged it.
She didn’t speak Whale, but being spat at made the whale’s intentions crystal clear.
It refused to let her touch its belly.
Belly rubs? Absolutely not!
“Sorry. I was just worried you might get indigestion,” Everly apologized honestly.
Then she tried to reassure herself. Looking on the bright side, the whale had swallowed Gary quite a while ago and still seemed perfectly energetic. Maybe it really had managed to digest that menace.
After all, it was an experimental creature created in a biological laboratory. A cutting-edge origin like that made an unusually powerful digestive system seem perfectly plausible.
Everly mentally reviewed everything she knew about the great whale.
Most of that information came from the scenes she’d witnessed inside Shelly’s painting Life, along with various secrets Remia and the others had told her.
Based on her deductions, the great whale had been created at the North Naradka branch of the Megan Biological Laboratory. That facility’s primary purpose had been to study a giant egg bestowed upon the followers of the Black Goat by an unknown deity.
By the time Everly entered the painting, the giant egg had already been opened, and whatever creature had been inside had died for unknown reasons. The researchers’ work then shifted to extracting genetic material from the egg and combining it with the genes of Earth’s other life forms to create entirely new organisms.
The great whale was most likely one of those genetically engineered creations. Judging from its appearance, orca DNA had probably served as the foundation, with genes from other creatures mixed in as well. Otherwise, its unusual fins and tail made little sense.
Later, the laboratory had been destroyed, and the great whale had escaped into the ocean.
Or perhaps it had destroyed the laboratory itself before fleeing into the sea. Otherwise, it was hard to explain the countless bullet holes and scars covering its body.
Looking at it that way, maybe the great whale had once been the protagonist of some horror movie too?
If the lead monster from Movie A had eaten the lead monster from Movie B, then maybe that explained it…
…Well, not really.
Everly still couldn’t wrap her head around it.
In her previous life, Gary had been one of the most iconic horror villains in American pop culture. As for the great whale… forgive her ignorance, but she’d never heard of any movie featuring such a creature. At best, it was probably just an unremarkable monster from some forgettable third-rate horror film.
If she had to make an analogy, it was like the two-headed shark from a bargain-bin B-movie biting Godzilla—the king of blockbuster monster franchises—to death in a single bite. Whether in terms of fame or sheer power, the gap between them was enormous. The whole development felt utterly unbelievable.
After racking her brain without finding an answer, Everly gave up trying to make sense of it.
After all, what else could she do?
The great whale was far stronger than she was. If it refused to cooperate, there was no way she could force it.
“Since you don’t like it, I won’t keep trying to examine you and make you angry… But if you start feeling unwell anywhere, you have to let me know, okay?”
Everly gestured animatedly as she spoke, doing her best to communicate with the whale.
“Ahh… ahh…”
This time, the great whale answered in a different tone, letting out a soft, melodious murmur that sounded almost like a cat’s purr.
Based on their previous attempts at communicating, Everly took it as a sign of agreement.
Delighted, she kicked her legs and cautiously swam toward the great whale once more.
Sure enough, this time, the great whale didn’t shy away from her.
The great whale kept its round little eyes fixed on her, floating quietly in place as Everly swam over. When she reached out to stroke its head, it remained perfectly still, allowing her to pet it however she liked without the slightest resistance.
“Thank you. Really. If you hadn’t helped me, I probably would have died here.”
Having survived such a close brush with death, Everly was in an exceptionally good mood. Especially after everything she’d just gone through—it had been far too dangerous. She couldn’t exactly tell her family or friends about it without making them worry.
At a moment like this, having a clever giant sea creature that couldn’t talk back to listen to her ramble was surprisingly comforting.
“Where did you come from? I remember you were in the Atlantic before. Did you move? And how did you know I was here? Were you just passing by, or did you come here specifically to help me?”
“Ahh… ahh…”
“Maybe you don’t know this, but about three months ago, I accidentally fell into someone’s painting and almost died. The one who saved me back then was… you, the version of you inside the painting.”
She paused, then laughed awkwardly.
“Doesn’t that sound strange? The you inside the painting saved me… Would you have felt anything? Like having a similar dream, or some kind of telepathic connection?… Come to think of it, do whales even dream?”
“Ah…”
The great whale offered no reply—nor was it capable of one.
As Everly talked, it simply floated beside her obediently, occasionally swishing its tail or letting out a soft little hum, as if to let her know it was listening to her endless stream of chatter.
She rambled on to the whale for quite some time before finally stopping, her lips dry from talking.
After mentally calculating the time, she realized that well over thirty minutes had passed since she’d encountered Gary.
Yet SAI’s rescue team still hadn’t arrived.
Which only proved that their promise to “hold out for thirty minutes” had been complete nonsense.
Fortunately, Everly had treated their support as nothing more than a backup plan from the very beginning. She’d never truly counted on them.
Otherwise, she’d probably be long dead by now.
Before leaving, Everly had promised her grandfather she’d be back within an hour.
Now the speedboat was gone, the satellite phone had sunk to the bottom of the sea along with it, her psychic power hadn’t recovered, and she couldn’t transform her tail.
More than forty minutes had already passed since she’d left home, and she was beginning to panic.
If she wasn’t back within the hour, there was no telling how worried her grandfather would be.
I shouldn’t have acted so confident before I left…
After grumbling to herself for a while, Everly suddenly recalled her experience inside the painted world.
A lightbulb seemed to flash on in her mind.
“I’ve got an idea!”
She patted the whale’s naturally upturned, rounded snout, then rubbed its big, round head ingratiatingly before leaning close to its eye.
“Hey, Mr. Whale,” she asked cautiously. “I’m a little tired, so I can’t swim very far right now. Could I ride on your back? Would you take me to shore?”
“Ahh… ahh…”
The whale gently nudged her palm with the tip of its snout before sinking lower into the water, leaving only a small section of its back exposed above the surface.
“You mean… you’ll do it?”
Everly threw her arms around the whale’s head in delight.
“Ah…”
The great whale answered with another soft cry, confirming her guess.
“Thank you! Once we’re back on land, I’ll treat you to filet mignon!”
She thanked it enthusiastically, then swam over to its back and carefully climbed aboard.
The whale’s back felt exactly as it had in the painted world—soft and smooth, with a pleasantly springy, jelly-like texture. If she paid close attention, she could even feel the warmth radiating from its body.
Once she had settled into place, the fins along the whale’s sides spread outward. From beneath them emerged two familiar pink tent*cles, one on each side.
Having ridden the whale before, Everly didn’t struggle. She allowed the tent*cles to wrap twice around her waist, securely fastening her into her “seat.”
“Woooo—!”
A long, resonant whale song echoed across the sea.
The living “mount” beneath her rose slightly, then its enormous tail began to sweep powerfully through the water.
A gentle rocking sensation followed as the great whale cleaved through the waves, carrying Everly atop its back at astonishing speed toward the shore—away from the setting sun.