WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 100: Speculation
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For a while, White and I could only stare at the human figures inside the capsules.
I’d expected to find something, but...
‘Fuck... I never imagined magical beasts would be cultivating people.’
No, to be precise, it would be the Transcendent faction backing the magical beasts...
This was a new one, and it was giving me a headache.
‘Cultivating humans? Are those even humans?’
Was this entire tree one enormous human cultivation facility?
Wait... Let’s think.
Why would a Transcendent faction do something so inefficient?
Was cultivating humans actually efficient, considering the resources involved?
‘...Wouldn’t it be better to use those resources to cultivate magical beasts?’
The human form wasn’t particularly good for combat.
White seemed to be thinking along the same lines. He muttered, “I... don’t understand the purpose of this... Are they trying to gain causality by creating a new humanity...? Since this is a tree, perhaps they aren’t actually humans. They could be elves or something.”
True... Elves would probably be more useful in combat than ordinary humans.
Considering the traits we associated with elves, they would likely have long lifespans, beautiful appearances... excellent archery skills and agility. Weren’t they also a race that received bonuses in fields related to nature, like spirit arts?
Whatever they were, nothing was certain yet.
“Shall we check?”
I ordered the magical beast to examine the human inside the capsule more closely.
White swallowed as the camera moved closer, enlarging the image.
“Ha...!”
He let out a sigh.
Up close, it was clear. The ears weren’t normal.
I hadn’t expected something born from that mysterious tree to be purely human in the first place, but...
“So they really are elves...”
This insane tree had created a new race on an Earth where nonhuman races hadn’t existed.
White pressed a hand to his forehead and laughed like a madman.
“Ha, haha!! So this was inside the giant tree!? Do they intend to become a creator!? Is this why they chose the magical beasts’ side instead of humanity’s!! How ridiculous!!! This Transcendent faction must really hate humans!!!!”
White apparently suspected that the giant tree’s Transcendent faction intended to wipe out humanity and make these pointy-eared pseudo-humans the rulers of Earth.
A race of pseudo-humans... Would society really be able to accept them?
This was certain to sow the seeds of a new conflict.
Especially if these pseudo-humans were superior to existing humans in every way...
White spoke in disbelief.
“I did find it strange that a Transcendent had sided with the magical beasts. They must have been planning this from the start. Honestly...”
We looked around the elf cultivation facility but found nothing else unusual.
“...I’ll have it keep exploring. The cultivation facility is shocking, but I don’t think this is all there is.”
This was only the outer edge.
If the entire giant tree was one enormous cultivation facility, or a complex of similar facilities, we would find something more important the farther inside we went.
Since this facility for cultivating humanoid life-forms was on the very outskirts, it naturally had to be of lesser importance.
“Now that you mention it, you’re right. We’re likely to find even more astonishing things farther inside!!”
We watched the magical beast’s camera feed with growing interest.
After walking for quite some time, it discovered another doorway and entered.
As before, the passage seemed to be made from the tree’s trunk.
But the view was distinctly different.
Channels that clearly carried some kind of energy ran like blood vessels through the wooden passage.
Several glowing streams cast a soft light over the corridor, and the energy flowed deeper inside.
The spy magical beast continued toward the heart of the giant tree.
The interior was so vast that traveling through it took a considerable amount of time.
Watching the screen, White said, “Come to think of it, many of the magical beasts outside weren’t quite what I’d call humanoid. Yet inside the giant tree, there’s such an obsession with the human form that they’ve built a human cultivation facility.”
He was right.
If our assumptions had been correct, the area around the giant tree should have been full of humanoid magical beasts... Yet all we’d seen were magical beasts that looked like failed attempts at combining things with humans.
Magical beasts with several human arms, for instance. Or specimens with perfectly human bodies but an energy mass floating where their heads should have been. There were even magical beasts made up of nothing but multiple heads rolling around.
Of course, plant tissue was visible on every one of them.
Anyway, those were the kinds of horrific things roaming around the outskirts of this giant tree.
Their appearance was bad enough, but their combat strength must have been considerable too.
Still, something puzzled me.
They were surely mutated magical beasts that had evolved after eating the fruit. Had their evolution failed?
Human will had a major influence on the direction of evolution. It felt strange that not a single specimen had successfully evolved into a complete humanoid form.
Just then, the camera’s view suddenly pitched forward.
Thud.
“...What!? Did it trip?”
I saw the main-body magical beast in my arms shed a small tear and shook my head.
“...No, I think... the magical beast is dead.”
“What!? What do you mean!!”
Step. Step.
We heard something approaching and kept watching the toppled camera feed.
A small shadow fell across the image of the floor. Then a voice spoke.
- An intruder?
“...!!”
“...”
It was clearly using language.
Crunch!
The screen went dark.
“...”
“...”
There was something inside that spoke human language.
* * *
After sitting in shock for a while, White stood up.
“Ha... Still, we did get something out of this. It’s a shame we couldn’t see farther inside, but I’m quite satisfied. The same method probably won’t work twice, so that concludes my commission!!”
Apparently finished with his business, White gave me a theatrical bow and snapped his fingers.
“I hope we’ll have another chance to meet! Until then...!”
His figure vanished before my eyes amid an effect like a party popper going off.
Flutter.
A card fell where he had been standing.
【 Magician Mask, White 】
It seemed to be a business card, with a brief introduction and his contact information.
“Please, at least try to hide your identity...”
I shook my head. Not one of those Round Table bastards was sane.
Then I sat in my chair and closed my eyes.
“Now the real exploration begins.”
At that moment, an eyeball pulled free from the dead spy magical beast and began moving on its own.
* * *
The next day, White passed beyond his faction’s front line and headed toward the giant tree.
A card he casually flicked split into dozens and shot toward a magical beast. They pierced its flesh with ease, severing blood vessels and muscles.
Kreeeeek!!!
Thooom!!
The magical beast collapsed, spilling an enormous amount of blood.
“I just can’t leave a mystery alone, can I?”
White intended to enter the giant tree, ready to escape with spatial magic if necessary...
But the magical beasts on its outskirts were no easy opponents.
To his surprise, the magical beast made up of multiple heads used an unusual power resembling telekinesis!
The other specimens probably had unexpected abilities as well. Such unknowns were the greatest danger when infiltrating alone.
“Hmm... This is trickier than I expected. Forcing my way inside won’t work after all. Getting through the outskirts wouldn’t be difficult, but I don’t know how powerful the enemies inside are... I’ll have to conserve my strength... What should I do...?”
The “great catastrophe” Plague had hinted at.
White suspected it might be an event that would determine humanity’s survival.
The appearance of transcendent beings, and an unknown entity who used even those beings. Then there was the vast game that entity had set in motion.
“This must be something akin to a ‘test.’”
If so, there would be right and wrong answers.
His instincts as an entertainer were telling him that Plague was enjoying this situation, creating variables by giving us hints!
And that being surely wanted an unexpected, entertaining answer.
“Now... Let’s think.”
If Plague had simply wanted to crush everything with force, they were undoubtedly capable of having swept it all away long ago. Yet they were giving them a chance. That meant they, too, were a Transcendent who enjoyed amusement... and no ordinary Transcendent at that.
White knew that even Transcendents had their own hierarchy.
‘In the end, many of those godlike beings have mortal roots.’
But Plague was different.
They must have been fundamentally alien from the moment of their birth.
A being born from the deepest chaos within chaos itself.
“In other words, Plague is the closest thing this game has to a joker.”
Rather than favoring either side, they probably made decisions based on pure pleasure.
“And beings like that reward those who entertain them.”
This was more than a chance to stop a great catastrophe from befalling humanity. It was undoubtedly an opportunity to get ahead of everyone else.
White continued onward, entertaining theories that would have made Yoo Hyun clutch his head.
Then he encountered someone unexpected.
“Oh... An Apostle?”
The voice came from above.
An elderly man stood on a floating sword like a Taoist immortal, chewing on a grotesque piece of fruit.
“Oh, my! I didn’t realize I had an audience!”
“Hahaha!! How shameless. Weren’t you subtly directing your killing intent at me while talking to yourself?”
That outfit... He belonged to one of the Chinese factions.
The human side, not the magical beasts.
Unlike the fruit in Sichuan, these people actually ground up humans and ate them.
‘Honestly, even eating the former makes me uncomfortable, but these people treat it like a delicacy they can’t get enough of, don’t they?’
That bastard was no different from a cannibal.
With the fruit, at least one could say that humans had been consumed as fertilizer for plants. But these lunatics ground humans up inside jars, compressed them, and consumed them directly.
“Have you come to pick fruit from the depths too? Quite a treasure trove, isn’t it? I come here myself whenever I fancy a delicacy. Hoho...”
‘Listen to him prattle on.’
The man didn’t seem to be an Apostle, yet he possessed considerable power.
Just how many human elixir pills had he stuffed down his throat?
As White carefully looked for an opening to kill the old man...
“Oh, dear! Don’t look at me like that!! If you cause a disturbance here, the magical beasts will surround us, you know?”
“Do you think something like that would frighten me?”
“Or... yes... My children might surround you instead.”
His children?
At that moment, White suddenly sensed several presences around him.
Figures with eerie auras emerged from between buildings and tree roots, wearing featureless masks.
He couldn’t detect any sign of life from them.
“...Zombies... No, jiangshi?”
“I caught some disobedient ones and made them useful. What do you think of my living jiangshi?”
Was that even a question?
White shook his head.
“Ha... Get lost quietly before you really ruin my mood.”
Not knowing what else that sinister old man might reveal, White decided to let him go. Nothing good had ever come from getting involved with people like that.
“Yes... It’s best to avoid pointless conflict. I still have business here, so you should be on your way.”
“Tsk...”
White left, glancing back.
The old man was waving goodbye.
‘...He wouldn’t have come just to pick and eat fruit... Is there something else here?’
To think he would even run into those lunatics who called themselves cultivators here...
“No... Wait...”
An idea flashed through White’s mind.
“Gasp...! Could it be...!! Is this part of the game Plague designed too...?”
Sichuan, where factions from all over the world were gathering.
The facility full of secrets and the pseudo-human cultivation facility discovered inside the giant tree at its center.
And an extraordinary old man pursuing something in that very same region.
White felt as though all of it might be connected.
“...Gasp!! Yes... So that’s it...!! If I’m right... Plague will definitely appear at the next meeting...!!!”
...The next Round Table meeting would begin tomorrow.
And... just as he had predicted, the plague doctor appeared.
With new information.
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