WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈

Chapter 22: A Needle in a Bag

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Luise's ELM-G-03 spirit entity model floated overhead.

“Energ... yyy...”

It had a unique status window unlike any magical beast Yoo Hyun had seen before.

[ Model Name 》 ELM-G-03 ]

[ Mana Core Rank 》 F- ]

[ Spirit Core Rank 》 C+ ]

[ Lifespan 》 ?? years ]

[ Traits 》 Mid-High-Grade Spirit Entity (B+), Energy Amplification (C+), Energy Control (C+) ]

[ This magical beast underwent a special enhancement process. ]

Yoo Hyun stared at the spirit entity's status window, inwardly flustered.

‘I didn't see this coming...’

Who could've expected this enhancement to reveal a new entry in the status window?

He definitely hadn't intended it.

Luise's spirit entity was simply the closest to a true spirit of all the spirit entities he'd seen so far. And since it had that butthole... Well, that unusual organ, he'd tried a new enhancement method.

He absolutely hadn't been aiming for a change like this.

‘...Replacing the mana core clearly triggered some critical change.’

Then again, what organ could be more important to a magical beast than its mana core?

He'd tampered with it, so perhaps this outcome wasn't that strange.

A mana core had been considered the weakness of existing spirit entities because it forced them to maintain a physical form.

Mana cores were essential materials in the creation of magical beasts.

You infused essence arrays extracted from monster materials into a mana core, then cultivated the completed Seed. That was the most basic and immutable law of magical-beast creation.

A mana core was a magical beast's heart, the foundation of its existence.

Every magical beast had to be born through a mana core.

That was why spirit entities could never become true spirits.

Unlike spirits, which were born from natural energy, magical beasts originated from the tangible substance known as a mana core. That innate difference couldn't be avoided.

But I wondered whether there might be a way to eliminate the weakness caused by that difference after the fact...

So I used a large number of Spirit Stones to create a virtual core made entirely of essence arrays.

A core made solely of energy, something that should've been impossible.

Of course, implanting it into an ordinary magical beast wouldn't have done anything.

‘Normally, it would've naturally dispersed over time.’

What I'd made was a temporary organ with no physical form, like an illusion.

A virtual core.

The only reason the Spirit Core could stabilize was because this magical beast had been created to be as close to a spirit as possible.

That meant this technology wasn't as broadly applicable as the previous two. There were only a handful of alchemists capable of creating a spirit entity of this caliber at present.

Still...

The Spirit Core technology caused an even greater upheaval in the magical-beast world than the previous two technologies.

The status window had presented an entirely new possibility.

My enhancement had opened up a new world of magical-beast creation.

Naturally, the venue erupted into chaos.

Tap tap tap tap-

The judges sprang from their seats and rushed toward me.

“Out of the way!!!”

[ Oh no, I'm dying here!!! ]

The host, who had been standing close to me, was shoved around and sent flying in the commotion.

One excited judge stared at the spirit entity as it slowly descended from the air.

“Ha...!! The mana core liquefied and was expelled, and something called a Spirit Core formed in its place?!!! I can't believe it... I can't believe this!!!!”

“E... nerg... yyy...”

In this industry, mana cores had been considered immutable organs that could never be altered.

Unlike a living creature's heart, they were so delicate that no one could even consider replacing them.

That wasn't to say hearts were organs you could easily swap out, of course...

Anyway.

By conventional understanding, mana cores weren't replaceable organs.

Yet Yoo Hyun had replaced one with an entirely new type of core. The emergence of a new magical-beast core was a discovery that could shake the entire world.

There was nothing strange about the judges nearly losing their minds.

“Yoo Hyun, do you realize what you've just done?!”

“You came up with such an insane idea and actually succeeded...!!”

“......It's beyond anyone's reach... What unparalleled talent. Why had someone like you remained undiscovered until now?!”

“Yoo Hyun!! You now have an obligation to satisfy our curiosity!!! What exactly is this Spirit Core?! This is one fucking sexy structure!!!!”

Questions rained down on him.

Overwhelmed by the judges' explosive momentum, the host let go of the microphone.

[ ......I don't even know anymore. ]

As the judges bombarded Yoo Hyun with questions, the audience realized they were witnessing a historic moment for the magical-beast industry and frantically recorded the impromptu symposium on their phones.

Among them was Petite Cream, the YouTuber who had been covering Yoo Hyun since the Design Competition.

He had been a Hunter-equipment YouTuber whose channel had blown up after he happened to watch Yoo Hyun's competition. Naturally, he had come to watch Yoo Hyun compete again today.

And it had been the right choice.

“Everyone... I think Yoo Hyun has done something again...!! He's a god...!!! My channel's blowing up...!!!”

[ Chat Window ]

- The great Yoo Hyun

- Something... something is happening...!!

- But I have no idea what they're saying. Someone translate.

- From what I can tell, he created a new magical beast that didn't exist before?

- ......? Didn't he do that at the Design Competition too?

- No, apparently a completely new entry appeared in the status window this time;;;

- ???????

- What does that even mean?

- They say he created an entirely new kind of magical-beast core? You know, like when the steam engine was first invented? Or the birth of batteries?

- Is that for real?

- Holy shit;;;

- Fucking hell, he went and made a new energy organ too? What the hell can't he do? LOL, I don't even know anymore. Hahahahahaha

- Ah... fuck!!! Magical-beast stocks are going to skyrocket again, aren't they? Why doesn't the Korean stock market have any magical-beast-related companies?! Damn it!!! Damn it!!!!!!!!!!!

- Well, you see...

Thanks to Petite Cream's livestream, the news quickly reached Korea as well.

【 Magical Beast Pet Minor Gallery 】

- [Free] The venue is going completely insane in real time LOL. The judges are so fucking excited LOLLLLL

- [Free] ......Wow, what the hell is happening? Yoo Hyun really is the Einstein of the magical-beast world. Fuck;;

- [Free] Now they're saying a new entry appeared in a magical beast's status window???? What the hell have Magic Beast Alchemists been doing all this time?

- [Free] Dun dun dun...!! Magical-beast cores weren't limited to processing monster mana cores!? He discovered something nobody had found in over ten years?

- [Free] What the hell does that even mean? Hahahahahahahaha

- [Free] Is the Yoo Hyun effect for real...? I've never seen Mamagall's posting rate this fast;;;

- [Free] My head hurts... So you're saying we've only been making one lineage of magical beasts this whole time?? What the hell were all the other alchemists doing...?

- [Free] Overseas magical-beast communities are losing their minds right now... I can't even guess what'll happen next;;;

- [Free] An overseas community server just crashed. Fuck LOL

- [Free] So Yoo Hyun did Yoo Hyun things again, right?

- [Free] I'm starting to suspect Yoo Hyun's Jellykko is actually a magical beast made with overtechnology... We foolish humans just failed to notice...

- [Free] Seriously... There must be a reason the god of alchemy is making Jellykkos. Based on my five years in Mamagall, Jellykko is the key.

The existence of a new magical-beast power source spread like wildfire.

Major magical-beast companies had already been keeping an eye on Yoo Hyun, but after this, it went without saying that he had become someone they absolutely had to recruit.

* * *

On the top floor of Ouroboros's headquarters, one of the world's largest magical-beast companies, Peter Vanderbilt, the CEO of the American magical-beast company Ouroboros, watched the broadcast of the Magical Beast Creation Competition at Messe Frankfurt and murmured,

“......We have to bring him in, no matter what. From now on, whoever gets Yoo Hyun will rule the magical-beast industry.”

Once was coincidence. Twice was suspicion. Three times was certainty.

In less than a week, Yoo Hyun had brought about not one but three innovations.

Every change he created had enough impact to overturn the magical-beast industry's landscape.

Every company and research institute would rush to study Duality, the Buffering Array, and the Spirit Core. They would all desperately wait for Yoo Hyun to publish papers on them.

Failing to make use of someone like him would be a loss to the nation...

No, to all humanity.

The mana levels of Gates rose every year, while Hunters' growth had hit a wall. This was an era where pets were drawing attention as a way to increase Hunters' combat power.

Yoo Hyun's pets would meaningfully strengthen Hunters, allowing them to raid more powerful Gates. Humanity would move further from danger while growing more prosperous.

He was someone capable of changing the world.

Still, one question came to mind.

“......What on earth was Korea doing?”

Why had someone like him been running a tiny pet shop?

* * *

The fervor at the venue showed no signs of cooling.

The host had been sitting blankly in a corner for hours, while the judges finally stopped their endless questions and wiped the sweat from their foreheads.

“Whew... There are still mountains of things I want to ask, but this symposium has been tremendously satisfying.”

“We should stop here. It wouldn't be polite to dig too deeply into his technology when he hasn't even published a paper yet.”

“Yoo Hyun, now that the competition is over, how about coming to our research institute? At your level, I could give you the deputy director's position right away, and nobody would object.”

“Oh, come now. Why would Yoo Hyun need to go to your research institute? Come to our Kilian Magic Engineering Workshop. You've heard of us, haven't you? We're one of the five largest companies across both the magic engineering and magical-beast industries. Even our CEO would welcome someone like you with open arms.”

Everyone had been watching one another, but a recruitment war finally began...

“No, I appreciate the offers, but I have several things scheduled after this, so it's difficult to give you an answer right now. I'll just take your business cards for now.”

It was an answer that left room without fully accepting or rejecting them.

The entire scene was captured on Petite Cream's broadcast.

Petite Cream, a broad-shouldered man, sank to the floor like a little girl.

“Gasp...!! N-no... My dream of Korea becoming a country that has Yoo Hyun...”

[ Chat Window ]

- LOL Cream bro's channel blew up because of the Yoo Hyun effect, and now he's become a believer.

- Ha... So Yoo Hyun really doesn't plan to stay in Korea...

- I'm going to kill that fucking bastard Congressman Kim Cheongsik, who ruined Korea with magical-beast regulations...

- Seriously, I'm getting the urge to murder someone...?

- Fuck LOL, but there's genuinely not a single reason to keep him in Korea. Hahahahahaha

- No infrastructure, absurd regulations... Things are this bad, and all they do is scapegoat subordinates instead of coming up with any real measures. LOL...

- He hasn't said he's leaving for anywhere yet, so isn't there at least a little hope...?

- I'll acknowledge Korea if they give Yoo Hyun a license to kill politicians.

[Breaking News] Unprecedented Triple Crown in “Design, Cultivation, Enhancement”... Korean alchemist becomes a legend of the Magic Engineering Expo

[Current Affairs] Will he return to the homeland that held him back with regulations... Which nest will the “God of Alchemy” choose next?

[World] “Why return to a homeland that treated him like a potential criminal?” Overseas media believe a Korean alchemist settling in Europe is likely

[Issue] Everyone but Korea is telling him to come. Why would he be crazy enough to return? “Korean Hunter circles reluctantly understand”

[General] Recruitment moves by the global top three, Ouroboros, Mansu, and Kilian, confirmed... “Yoo Hyun's return to Korea has effectively fallen through”

[Stock Market] Korea has no magical-beast-related stocks... “The only market completely excluded from the global rally”

All of his schedules in Germany had come to an end...

Now, all that remained was returning to Korea.

Footnotes:

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