WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 16: Aftermath
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Duality was a new method of magical beast creation, distinct from conventional methods.
The method I came up with on the spot could be called a stepping stone toward the next stage of magical beast alchemy.
Conventional methods produced a complete result with a single magical beast. Duality, on the other hand, stabilized two unstable magical beasts by placing them in a complementary relationship.
This would bring a fresh wind to the world of magical beast creation, which had long been fixated on designing individual creatures.
Maximilian looked over the designs for the Duality creatures, then shouted with a satisfied grin.
“Kuahahahaha!!! This is it!! This is technology! This is innovation!!!”
【 Magical Beast Pet Minor Gallery 】
- [Free] LOL, why is grandpa so happy, clapping his hands like that?
- [Free] Wow, is it just me, or does that fussy old man Maximilian look like a teenage girl watching her favorite singer's legendary performance?
- [Free] I don't know what it is, but if that guy's reacting like that, he must've made something insanely amazing...
- [Free] Sigh... I wish I knew how to read design plans too... T_T
- [Free] From now on, Boss Yoo Hyun is our gallery master. No objections accepted.
Not only Maximilian, but the other Magic Beast Alchemists also seemed deeply excited by the birth of a new creation method.
“Now that I understand the intention, I can see it... He deliberately pushed the abilities to such extremes that the balance would collapse... What a beautiful structure...!”
“Ah... It's an excellent design that shatters the stale assumption that securing ‘stability’ is the foundation of magical beast design... It can only be called revolutionary...”
With Duality as a starting point, alchemists would leave behind boring, stable designs and step into a world of extreme, unstable possibilities.
Maximilian looked over the design, then asked me curiously.
“Yoo Hyun, how did you come up with something like this?”
“Hmm...”
As a fellow alchemist, Maximilian seemed curious about the process that had led me to Duality. Where had I found my inspiration, and what had prompted it...?
When I thought about it, it wasn't anything special. It all started because I hadn't been able to make a pet for Baek Seola.
The day we had that consultation, I turned down her request after deciding that I couldn't make a magical beast useful to her unless it was B-rank or higher.
It had bothered me ever since. I spent some time wondering how I could make a magical beast that would help her while staying within my permitted creation rank of C-rank...
Duality might have been a method I devised on the spot, but beneath it lay all the concerns I'd carried while trapped by the restrictions of my license.
Without saying who it was, I told Maximilian that story.
“Hmm, I see. To create an entirely new method for that person... They must be quite important to you.”
“They are.”
She was an extremely important customer to me, considering her considerable influence in Korea's Hunter world.
* * *
It was three or four in the afternoon in Germany, where the competition was in full swing.
In Korea, it was eleven at night.
Late that night, after finishing her day, Baek Seola watched the broadcast of the competition Yoo Hyun had entered, wondering whether he was doing well.
Contrary to her expectations, something absurd was unfolding on-screen, far beyond simply doing well.
She'd thought it would be fortunate if he placed high enough to receive a license. What in the world was he doing over there?
“Th-this... This can't be real...”
A new creation method? A new horizon for magical beast alchemy?
Keywords that would send Yoo Hyun's value soaring poured out one after another. Even the judges, who had been openly skeptical, were heaping praise on him.
The scene was so overwhelming that she could feel chills through the screen.
“D-did I... really get on the last train in time...!?”
Thump. Thump.
Baek Seola's heart raced madly, as if she'd successfully bought an ultra-premium stock at rock bottom.
Then the screen showed Maximilian talking with Yoo Hyun.
“Uh...? Don't tell me...”
She realized it.
Who the person in Boss Yoo Hyun's story was.
What had motivated him to create that revolutionary technology.
“F-for me?”
Flush.
At a moment that could become a historic event for the magical beast industry, he was openly bringing up an incident involving her... There had to be a better story he could use to make himself look good...! What was that man saying at such an important moment?
No, more importantly... Didn't that practically count as a public confession!?
“D-do people normally go that far to impress someone? ...Even so...”
Baek Seola's fair skin made it impossible to hide how quickly her face reddened.
He created an entirely new method... Just how much had he been thinking about me to achieve something like that...?
I couldn't even begin to imagine it...
“I-it doesn't feel too bad, though. Hmph...”
Hugging a pillow, Baek Seola buried her face in it for a long time.
* * *
The excitement at the competition venue had yet to die down.
The Duality creatures I had created through Design possessed an inherent instability. If even one of the two failed to function properly, both would die.
“More precisely, they're in a symbiotic relationship.”
“But thanks to that, they possess output beyond what existing creatures can achieve.”
That was exactly right. Duality made possible an output that a single creature could never produce.
It was quite revolutionary in that it wasn't simply double the effect. It could produce synergy far beyond that.
By refining this technology through symbiotic magical beasts, I would be able to lay the groundwork for creating fully fused magical beasts that went beyond symbiosis.
“Mr. Yoo, did you have a motif for Duality?”
“Hmm, if I had to name one, it would be the Eastern concept of Biyik Yeonri.”
Two unstable magical beasts coexist, each fulfilling a role the other needs.
It was similar to the mythical Biyik bird.
A fantastical creature in which the female and male each had only one eye and one wing, so they could fly only when together.
That was close to the motif behind Duality.
As I continued answering the judges' questions, the host cautiously spoke up.
[ Um, excuse me, but shouldn't we proceed with the judging soon...? ]
“Hey!! We're getting to the good part!”
“Quiet! Can't you see we're discussing something important? How uncouth, at an academic conference!”
This wasn't an academic conference. It was a competition, you people...
The competition finally ended late that evening.
As expected, I won by a unanimous decision from the judges.
Setting aside the fact that I had opened a new horizon with Duality, I had perfectly understood the intentions of Maximilian, the original designer of the magical beasts provided for the competition, and created the design for the complete magical beast he had envisioned. It was the best possible result, perfectly aligned with the purpose of the competition.
* * *
The next day.
Click.
When I stepped out of my hotel room, Dongbaek Guild's Hunters Kang Sujin and Seong Taesik greeted me with rigid ninety-degree bows. Behind them, Yoo Dusik and Lee Yujin were grinning as they watched.
“Good morning, Yoo Hyun! We will escort you to the dining hall.”
Before, they had simply been guards sent to work under Guild Master Baek Seola's orders. Now, their eyes held the reverence of people looking at the CEO of a major corporation.
Their sudden change in attitude made me uncomfortable in a different way. They were so loud that they were drawing attention, too...
“...Please just act as you normally do.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Understood!”
Not a chance.
“The Cultivation Division competition starts on the third day, so I can look around the expo for a while, right?”
“Of course! Since you are already a competition champion, all your remaining activities are unrestricted. You may even skip the rest of the competition if you wish! Please enjoy the rest of your schedule comfortably!”
“I won't be skipping the competition. Since I'm here, I'm planning to win the rest too.”
“...!!”
“Gasp.”
I'd already drawn plenty of attention, so why hide anything else? If I was doing this, I might as well take the triple crown before going home.
Yoo Hyun then headed to the dining hall...
Kang Sujin and Seong Taesik of Dongbaek watched his back and thought,
‘Guild Master Baek Seola's eye for talent was spot-on... We absolutely have to bring that man into our guild!!’
Lee Yujin and Hunter Yoo Dusik followed Yoo Hyun as they spoke.
“Seriously... Boss Yoo Hyun is legendary every time I see him... I really think he'll win all the remaining competitions too...”
“Hahaha! We sure know how to buy at the bottom.”
* * *
While Yoo Hyun leisurely toured the Magic Engineering Expo and experienced cutting-edge Hunter technology, Korea was being turned upside down by the repercussions of the Duality magical beast synthesis method he had created.
Articles and news reports flooded in as soon as morning arrived.
[Breaking] ‘A New Horizon in Magical Beast Alchemy’... Korean Magic Beast Alchemist Wins First Place at the Magical Beast Creation Competition at Germany's Messe Frankfurt Expo!
[Feature] Shaking Up Europe's Conservative Magical Studies Academic Community... World's First ‘dual-polar complementary structure (Duality)’ Technology!
[Issue] “The History of Magical Beast Alchemy Was Rewritten Today”... Germany's Stringent Panel of Judges Gives Korean Alchemist Perfect Scores
[IT/Science] Breaking the Limits of Individual Creatures... Korean-Developed ‘Duality Synthesis Method’ Will Completely Change the Paradigm of Magical Beast Studies
[Stock Market] Magical Beast Pet Company Stocks Soar Following the Announcement of ‘Duality’... The Technology Is Korean, So Why Are There No Korean Magical Beast Companies?
Bang!!
Assemblyman Kim Cheongsik slammed his desk as he read the news articles sent by an aide.
“How... How the hell did this happen...!!”
Just recently, when that Jellykko or whatever incident had happened, things had barely calmed down after the regulations were eased...
But something even bigger had erupted.
[Exclusive] Developer of World-Shaking ‘Duality’ Turns Out to Be the Owner of a Small Neighborhood Pet Shop
[Politics] “Who Blocked the National Interest?”... The Tragedy Caused by Assemblyman Kim Cheongsik's magical-beast regulation law
[Stock Market] ‘Duality,’ Worth Trillions, While Its Creator Worried About Having His Business Shut Down at Home... The Farce of K-Regulation
[Issue] “Like Locking Einstein in a Neighborhood Stationery Store”... The Unfunny Tragedy Created by Korea's Bad Regulations
[Interview] “That Young Man From the Neighborhood Pet Shop Who Used to Make Jelly Dogs Was the Perfect-Score Winner at the German Expo?!” Residents Shocked!
...
Seeing the flood of articles, the entire nation began condemning the government and the Korean Alchemists Association.
People were truly furious after learning that someone so talented had been reduced to running a small pet shop in Korea.
Assemblyman Kim Cheongsik.
Clear personal interests lay behind his push to force through the magical-beast regulation law and build his political standing. He had tried to divide public opinion and raise his approval ratings through fearmongering, painting magical beasts as dangerous monsters that could not be controlled...
No. Wait. That wasn't what mattered right now.
“Fuck, I need to contain this... I need to contain it...!!!”
What the hell was he supposed to do about this?
Even as he panicked, articles kept pouring in.
[Shock] The Two Faces of the Politician Who Championed ‘Public Safety’... Confirmed Use of Nominee Share Transactions With the Existing Mana Core Monopoly Cartel
[Exclusive] “Even Sexual Harassment of Aides and Guild Personnel...” Documents Obtained Exposing Assemblyman Kim Cheongsik's Ugly Private Affairs
[Issue] The Two Faces of Kim Cheongsik, Who Pretended to Be Righteous... Public Shock Over Exposures of Sex Crimes, Slush Funds, and Abuse of Power
In a single day, articles poured forth as if the entire world were determined to destroy him. Kim Cheongsik, a senior member of the ruling party and chairman of the National Assembly Special Committee on Magical Beast Industry Regulations, had no choice but to curse.
“...F-fuck... I'm completely fucked.”
Footnotes:
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